Persassy the Professor
by Darken Every Legend
Summary: Betrayal is the beginning. Pain and dreams follow, leaving one thing behind - fragile, frail hope.
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! I've wanted to do a PJO/Harry Potter crossover for ages, but I couldn't think of a plot. So… here is my new story. Sorry it's basically a mix of some cliché plots.**

 **IMPORTANT: I'm not abandoning either Demigods or Magicians (PJO/Kane Chronicles) or the Rising of Tartarus (PJO). They should be updated soon- ish.**

 **Disclaimer: okay… a few things I need to own before I own these stories. Like my own computer.**

 **Percy's POV**

For once, I was happy.

It was six months after our defeat of Gaia, and things were more or less back to normal. Skipping over the 'minor' event of Leo appearing back from the dead like some kind of second Jesus, with my old friend Calypso (awkward, seeing as… a lot of stuff) on his metal dragon Festus, laden with a lot of merchandise from around the world. Apparently he decided to go on a world tour before even informing us he was alive. Typical. Although, soon after, he had left camp again, leaving the role of counsellor to Nyssa. He and Calypso wanted to open some shop in Miami, of all places. Don't ask me why. Anyway...

It was a while after dinner, but I was sitting by Thalia's pine tree, lost in thought. I was considering proposing to Annabeth.

We hadn't been dating long, by normal standards, but I figured a demigod shouldn't wait. There are too many things that can happen to you when the bloodthirsty monster population would like nothing better than to skewer you.

I hadn't gone far with it, yet. I wanted a ring from Hephaestus- only the best- but within seconds of me doing that, I would have two very emotional goddesses on my doorstep. Athena, come to threaten me with exceedingly painful torture and death if I hurt her daughter, and Aphrodite, squealing on about how 'Percabeth' was her favourite couple, and precisely what shade the bridesmaids' dresses should be, etc.

Then, I heard screams.

Jumping up, I pulled out Riptide and raced down the hill beyond the camp borders, wondering what had happened.

I reached the bottom of the slope, and listened intently. Another scream tore through the night, and I sprinted off in the direction.

It didn't take long before I came across the source of the screams. A guy, wearing a hoodie that obscured his face, was backed up against a tree holding a flickering torch, cowering before a couple of dracaenae who were circling him with crude tridents and a couple of dented shields probably nicked out of an old weapon store.

Running over, I decapitated the first before it realised what was happening. The second hissed half-heartedly and swung her trident towards my side, but I dodged the clumsy blow, knocked her weapons aside and slashed her chest with Riptide.

The whole episode lasted about ten seconds.

Feeling quite pleased, I recapped my sword and leant down, extending a hand to the guy still lying on the ground.

Gingerly, he took it and stood. I realised he was really tall- possibly taller than me.

"I'm Percy," I said. "I'm here to help you. I'll take you to a safe pla-"

"Percy Jackson?" he interrupted, still hooded. "Oh. I've heard of you. And I was coming here, to Camp Half-Blood, right?"

"Oh," I was slightly taken aback. Sometimes you did get demigods who knew of their heritage and were guided here by their godly parent, but they could protect themselves. This guy didn't look like he had a weapon.

The dude cleared his throat. "Thanks for that, but I had it under control. Ever heard of battle tactics?" he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pen.

A pen identical to Riptide.

I swallowed. Could it be…?

He uncapped the pen, and it sprang to life- a bronze sword, Riptide to the last engraving.

Automatically, I felt in my pocket. Riptide was still there.

"It's like yours?" the guy asked, and I got the impression he was observing me closely. "In fact, the same. Mine's called Xiphos, though."

"Sword," I murmured. "In Ancient Greek. But why…"

"Why is it the same?" he sounded like he was smirking. "Well, I imagine because of dad. You know, our dad. Poseidon."

Riptide dropped out of my hand. I… I had a sibling? But this guy had to be almost my age!

He pulled off his hood, and I saw his face for the first time. He was maybe around fifteen? Green eyes, more like Octavian's than mine **(A/N: Uncle Rick describes Octavian's eyes as pond scum green)**. Black hair that fell like it was supposed to, unlike mine. Bold features and an authoritative air.

He was so similar to me, and yet… so different.

"I'm Ryan," he said with a superior tone I instantly hated. "Ryan Matthews. Raised from birth by Poseidon. Our father."

 **Harry's POV**

I was at the Burrow once again, but there was a definite air of sadness.

The war had claimed so many people: Lupin, Tonks, Moody… But the person whose presence was most keenly felt here was definitely Fred. George was in his shop in Diagon Alley, and although 'Weasley's Wizard Wheezes' had never done better- they had bought Zonko's now- he was in a state of trauma. Angelina Johnson, the old Quidditch captain, had got a job there as well, and was looking after him. I was pretty sure Mrs Weasley hoped they'd get together eventually, but it was too soon to be thinking of that stuff now.

Ron, Hermione, practically everyone in my old year and me, were going back to Hogwarts for an eighth year- something that would have seemed unbelievable a year ago, when I would still have been at Privet Drive and Scrimgeour was Minister instead of Kingsley.

We had all bought our books, broomsticks and equipment, but there were so many questions- the most pressing, who would be the DADA teacher?

"Definitely an Order member," Hermione said, as we sat in Ron's room at the Burrow with him and Ginny. "Who would be better qualified?"

Ron rolled his eyes. "No bloody way, Hermione. It'll have to be an Auror."

Ginny sat there unusually quietly. "Maybe someone else," she murmured, twisting a strand of flame-coloured hair around her finger. "Someone else entirely…"

 **First chapter done! Like? Hate? Please review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Okay, to get this clear, there** _ **will**_ **be Percabeth in this story.**

 **And I have not abandoned my other stories, I say again. I just have writer's block. Any suggestions for them would be appreciated.**

 **To AutumnLeaves03: Thanks! Ryan is almost sixteen.**

 **Annabeth's POV**

I may have completed my quests, but Tartarus still came back to me every night.

Tonight it wasn't any better.

I lay in my bed in the Athena cabin, unwilling to close my eyes. I knew what waited faithfully for me behind them- Arachne. The arai. Akhlys. Nyx.

But the worst, even though they had been my friends, were Bob and Damasen. They had saved my life so many times down there, and how did I repay them? By letting them die because of us- two demigods they owed nothing to, and by all rights, should hate.

Then, distantly, I heard noises- shouts, shocked voices, the clip- clopping of Chiron's hooves… _roads,_ I thought. _They've gone out past the borders_.

Lepaing up, I grabbed my drakon-bone sword from where it lay by my bed and slipped out of the cabin, easing the door shut behind me. Then I sprinted off in the direction of Thalia's pine.

\- _Hi, I am a line break and I like cookies!_ -

I ran up to a small knot of people standing, illuminated by the moon, on the dusty road that led to Camp Half-Blood. Chiron was looking grave. Rachel stood next to him, her cloud of frizzy hair floating around her shoulders. She was still dressed in her usual paint-splattered clothes, and I deduced that maybe I wasn't the only one getting sleepless nights around here. Rachel's dreams had to be invaded with just as many dark visions as mine were.

Unsurprisingly, Percy was right beside them. He was always in the thick of trouble. However, his eyes seemed clouded with shock and anger. Wondering what was wrong, I turned to the last figure.

It was someone I'd never seen before, a guy maybe fifteen or sixteen, with black hair styled like Jason's, strong features and green eyes. Huh, that was weird. He looked a bit like Percy.

It took me several minutes to figure out what was up.

 **Ryan's POV**

As we walked into Camp Half-Blood, I took the time to check the blonde girl out.

She was pretty hot, with corkscrew blonde curls that rippled down her back, stormy grey eyes and a guarded expression. Definitely dating material.

Only one thing… she stood pretty close to Jackson. This had to be Annabeth Chase, his girlfriend- the one that Dad was always groaning about.

Oh, well. If everything went as I planned… that wouldn't be a problem.

You might be wondering who exactly I am. Well… long story. I'm almost sixteen, a son of Poseidon. When I was young, Mom died. Which was totally an accident…but I don't think the court people would have got that. Things weren't exactly looking great for me and my friend Bryce Lawrence… until Poseidon appeared. He wiped Bryce's short-term memory, sent him to Camp Jupiter, and took me with him.

Obviously, I didn't grow up in Atlantis. That would be way too clear to Zeus that, hey, there was a son of Poseidon hanging out as a prince in Atlantis! Poseidon broke the oath! No, I lived somewhere more… secret.

A year ago Dad (who I had wrapped round my little finger) started saying it was time for me to go to Camp, to become a hero and make some friends. That kind of made me angry. I knew the only reason he was letting me go now was because his other son, Percy Jackson, had turned sixteen and saved the world, so there was no danger of me doing it instead. Nice to know he had so much confidence in me.

Anyway, I was pretty happy with the idea of leaving. I'd always been good at manipulation. I could have _way_ more fun at Camp than I could shut up by myself with a few terrified nymphs who I'd bullied into not telling my father what I was up to.

But then, of course, Dad said no and got paranoid again, because Percy I'm-such-a-big-hero Jackson went missing.

I really hoped he had died, but then a several months later Dad visited saying how happy he was that pretty little Percy wasn't dead, and he was going to save the world again, etc. Which really, really pissed me off. I think it was after that last visit that I made a mental vow to destroy Jackson's life.

And then, after ages of plotting and planning, a completely oblivious Poseidon came and said that I could go to Camp!

I didn't exactly waste time on fond farewells, except for a 'teary' goodbye to Dad (cue the tissues to hide the fact I wasn't actually sad at all) and got transported to just outside Camp Half-Blood. Where a couple of snake-woman freaks decided to attack the Prince of the Seas, and above all, it had to be Jackson that rescued me. Greeat.

But I wasn't exactly complaining. After all, it was payback time now…

 **Hermione's POV**

I was sorting through the stack of schoolbooks I had purchased for eighth year. I mean, can you believe it? I get an extra year of school to look forward to!

Neither Harry or Ron were so happy to return, but they cheered up when they both got new brooms with money from the Ministry, courtesy of Kingsley, because they had sold a load of Death Eater valuables and thought we deserved some of the profit.

Anyway, the boys and Ginny were perched on the end of my bed, looking mutinous.

Then I gasped. What…? There had to be a mistake! Maybe I had missed something off the book list?

Harry looked up in amusement. "What? Found a spelling mistake?"

"No," I murmured. "But there are no set books for DADA! How am I supposed to revise?"

Ron laughed. " 'Mione, you don't revise before school starts. Or…wait… is that how you always know everything?"

"Shut up," I said impatiently.

Ginny jumped down next to me. "No, Ron, she's right. That is weird. They can't have found a teacher yet."

"Well, who would want the job?" Harry mused. "I mean, we know it's actually jinxed now. Unless that stopped with Voldemort's death."

"Yes, but people don't know that, Harry," I said, even more impatiently. "But we have to have a teacher for DADA!"

"We could restart Dumbledore's Army," Ron suggested. "After all, McGonagall won't be able to get a decent teacher at this stage."

I hit him. "Ron! First, we can't do DADA for the entire school. Second, she might be. Dumbledore found Slughorn really late."

"Not this late," said Harry. "And he always knew he was going to get him then. I was thinking, actually, we need more than one new teacher. What about Transfiguration, because McGonagall's the Head now, isn't she? And Muggle Studies? The old teacher's dead!"

I nodded. "We have books for them, though. So let's assume they've already found teachers for those subjects."

Ginny nodded. "Dad was talking to Mum about the new Muggle Studies curriculum yesterday, so I'll bet they have. It doesn't really matter about this, anyway, does it? Whoever it is can't be worse than Umbridge or the Carrows."

 **Percy's POV**

It was three months after my parents' death and the pain was still as sharp as ever. **(A/N: sorry I just casually threw that in but I need them out of the way and I forgot last chapter.)**

But I had other stuff to occupy my mind. My first impressions of Ryan were entirely accurate.

He was a lying, attention seeking a**hole. He acted nice, but at night in the Poseidon cabin he lost no opportunity to taunt me. He tricked all my friends into supporting him. After a while, most believed him. Even Chiron, who I was shocked at, but it was true that the evidence against me was overwhelming. I'll say one thing for Ryan: the kid had brains.

I only had a few friends left. Clarisse, which may have seemed surprising, but she had a head. She may have been blunt and mocking, but she could see things clearly. Nico… well, not much shock there. I can't see any lie tricking Nico. Piper and Jason had been turned against me. Hazel, Frank and Reyna, I knew, supported me, but they were facing their own problems- Octavian's old friends in the Senate- back in New Rome. And, I had Annabeth.

Clarisse, Nico and Annabeth. They were all I had left and I was determined not to lose them.

It was my birthday and therefore my anniversary with Annabeth. Determined to make it special for us, I sent a message to her: _Wise Girl…meet me at the beach at seven o'clock tonight. There will be food. Your Seaweed Brain._

At 6:45, I brought a picnic down to the beach, at my favourite cove. I sat there for a while, just enjoying the peace I felt at that moment. No more wars… even Ryan couldn't bother me right now.

Annabeth was twenty minutes late now. It wouldn't particularly bother me, but in the past few days she had been acting strangely at not like herself at all. Even… distant.

I wondered now if she had been taken ill. Maybe I should go check. But I might miss her coming down…

I waited another ten minutes before I made up my mind. Something had happened to Annabeth and I should find her.

Climbing the rocks again, I left the picnic sitting on the beach and hurried back through the woods, towards the Big House.

Then I heard voices. One, I knew, was Ryan. The other was a girl.

He was such a player. Probably charmed some Aphrodite girl he was going to dump tomorrow morning. At least she might hate him after that.

Then I glanced in the direction of the voices, and realised they were a lot closer than I'd originally thought.

Ryan and a blonde with her back to me were standing in a clearing, kissing passionately, his hands entangled in her long hair.

"When are you going to dump him?" he murmured. So this girl already had a boyfriend? Sick. Shaking my head, I made to continue.

Then I heard the second voice.

"Oh, soon." A heart-clenchingly familiar tone… who, though? "He won't mind. Maybe he'll hook up with Reyna or Rachel or one of the people he's probably seeing. You have to have a few flings, right?"

Okay. This girl was pretty cruel too. I felt sorry for her boyfriend. But Reyna and Rachel? Did she mean Jason, maybe? Frank?

"Sure," Ryan replied. "Just break it off with Percy, right? I'm way better."

Then I froze. It couldn't be… could it?

They kept laughing with each other quietly, murmuring sappy stuff.

But I didn't hear it.

Couldn't hear it.

The girl was Annabeth.

 **(A/N: was going to end it here but didn't want to)** - _liney breakie_ -

I ran, blindly, back to the Poseidon cabin without even thinking where I was going.

As though I was possessed, I began mechanically taking stuff of the shelves and piling it into the unlit grate.

Before I knew it, all my personal stuff was in a massive pile- letters, CHB T-shirts, everything.

I struck a match and tossed in onto the heap.

Watching this stuff burn was a kind of release. I tore my bead necklace from around my neck and added that, too. Then the pictures went- all except the ones of Clarisse, Nico, Reyna, Hazel and Frank (which I stashed in my pockets.)

I piled the clothes that didn't bear reminders of Camp into a rucksack, along with a few basic essentials, all my mortal cash (no drachmas) and some non-perishable food.

Then I took one last glance around and left.

\- this is another line break, serving you today-

Once out of Camp, I took a taxi to a random location. I don't even remember where- just that it was one hell of a long way away from Camp.

When I finally got out, I was standing by a supermarket with a sign flashing neon in the dark. There were some weird people around here, I noted. Several dodgy-looking guys, an old woman with a leather jacket and bright pink hair- and, right next to me, an ancient guy with a long white beard and sweeping robes.

Instinctively, I edged back.

The guy pushed his glasses back onto his nose, and asked, "Would you be Percy Jackson?"

I was so surprised I think I let out a squeak. My immediate thought was, "Monster!" but somehow this dude didn't seem like one.

He looked amused. "I was looking for you to ask you a favour. I used a tracking spell, in fact. You see, I would like you to teach at my school- a very special school for people who are magical.

"Demigods, you mean?" I stammered.

The guy smiled. "No. I believe Hecate blessed us originally, though, but we are far out of her control now. We are a European group known as witches and wizards."

I blinked. "What?"

He smiled kindly. "Look," and produced an ornate stick from up his sleeve. Then he frowned as if he was trying to remember something.

Coloured light began to stream out of the stick, and passed towards me. Then- I don't know how to describe this- it went into my body.

\- _sorry, this is another line break_ -

When I woke up, the old guy- but somehow I knew his name… Dumbledore- was standing above me. We were in some kind of bus shelter.

"How do you feel?" he said kindly. "A simple spell to share information with another. I believe you now know about-"

"Hogwarts," I interrupted. "A school for people like you. You want me to teach Defence there? And you think I will, as a demigod, have the abilities of a very powerful 'wizard'?"

Dumbledore smiled. "Indeed. I am glad to see the spell worked. You know about the wars, and Harry Potter, and how to get to Diagon Alley and Platform 9 and three quarters?"

I nodded, in a daze. Maybe I was dreaming. I had to be dreaming.

But I knew I wasn't.

 **This is officially the longest chapter I've ever written for any of my stories. 2400 words! Hope you liked it!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thank you for all the positive responses I had! A lot of you asked if you could kill Ryan, so… I guess I did an okay job making him messed up. A lot of 'Percy's evil brothers' just seem to be evil, and it's never really explained, but I wanted to make mine different.**

 **Okay, clearing things up. Dumbledore is not alive. So whom did Percy meet?**

 **Clue: read.**

 **Percy's POV**

Dumbledore beckoned me to follow him, as he walked round the corner of an old building and down a dark alleyway. He glanced around theatrically and said, Ah, This will do… no one will see us here."

I nodded. "Er… okay. What are you going to do?"

Dumbledore gave a benevolent smile. "You won't have heard of Apparition, of course?"

I frowned. "No."

He drew his stick- no, wand- out again and said, "Apparition is moving from one place to another seamlessly, in a mere matter of seconds."

Thinking about it, I asked, "So a bit like teleportation?"

He gave me a shrewd look. "A bit."

As he didn't elaborate, I said, "Is that what we're doing now?"

He smiled gently. "Indeed, no. You may have noticed… how no one else seems to see me?"

I blinked. "What?"

"Evidently not." he sighed. "Touch my arm."

Vaguely wondering if he was mad, I gingerly placed my hand on his arm.

Or tried to.

I yelped as my hand passed straight through, his 'skin' shimmering like one of Hazel's tricks with the Mist. Jumping back, I felt in my hand for my sword.

Dumbledore said quickly, "Percy, I am not what you call a 'monster'. But I am not technically alive either."

I gaped. "So you're…a ghost?"

"Not exactly." the guy was really starting to annoy me with his answers-that-weren't-answers.

"I am some kind of spirit, I suppose you would say. One summoned back from the dead for a short while to do the bidding of a powerful wizard, witch- or god."

I did a double-take. "You mean a god summoned you from the dead?"

Dumbledore said calmly, "Yes. The goddess Hecate, and no, Percy, I am not mad. Let me demonstrate, again."

He waved his wand and murmured, "Expecto patronum!"

A silvery bird burst out of the tip, trailing silver sparks. It twisted joyfully in the air and vanished.

"That was Latin," I muttered automatically. "But according to the memory transfer thing, a lot of your spells are in Latin or Greek, right?"

Dumbledore nodded. "Indeed."

"So spirits can do magic?" I pressed.

Dumbledore nodded again. "Yes, but we are getting away from the point. I wanted to ask you… will you teach the students of the school of magic-"

"Hogwarts," I muttered, smirking.

"- yes, Hogwarts. Amusing, I know. But would you teach the students as their Defence Against the Dark Arts professor? Understanding you would under no circumstances tell anyone but the headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, about meeting me, and that you are a demigod?"

I sucked in a breath. Hecate had sent Dumbledore here for me. She thought I could start a new life.

It held appeal. Turning over a new page, where no one knew me, where I wasn't a revered and respected hero with so much on my shoulders.

I would miss Camp. But there was nothing there for me anymore.

Sucking in a breath, I asked, "What do I do?"

 **Harry's POV**

After several lazy weeks of Quidditch, cooking and just not doing anything, it was finally time to go back to Hogwarts.

"It's weird, isn't it," mused Hermione as we climbed in the car to drive us to King's Cross, "That this year, there won't be any fights, any Voldemort… anything."

Ron grinned. "Blimey, you're right. Wonder what it's like to have a peaceful life…?" Then he snorted. "You guys realise we'll be the oldest there?"

Ginny, who hadn't really been participating in the conversation, cut in. "I know. Can't I even be the oldest when I'm in my last year at school? Trust you lot to ruin that for me."

Hermione nodded. "I wonder who the Head Boy/ Girl are."

I looked at her, amused. "You're disappointed it's not you, aren't you?"

She sighed impatiently. "Harry, you realise it could still be. With everything that went on this year, they haven't had time to announce Prefects, Captains and stuff like that yet. Dumbledore will say at the feast."

Ron looked at her with the same expression- bemused- I was feeling. "How do you know that?"

"Did _none_ of you read the bit at the end of our equipment letters? It said everything there."

"Oh," I murmured sheepishly. "Right."

Finally, we parked just outside the entrance to King's Cross. The group of us headed towards the platform, Mrs Weasley anxiously glancing at her watch. "Come on, dears! We don't want to be late!"

Ginny paused. "Where's Dad? He usually comes to see us off."

Mrs Weasley gave a knowing smile. "You'll see him soon, I daresay. But I'm not telling you anything more! Come on!"

She didn't relax until we were on our platform, but I was thinking about that cryptic bit of advice. Okay, so we'd see him at Hogwarts. Why? Was the Triwizard tournament on again or something?

That definitely wasn't right. We would have heard, what with Kingsley visiting practically every week for dinner along with a load of Order members.

I frowned. Oh, well. I wasn't about to find it out from the Hogwarts Express, was I? It didn't talk.

I think.

 **Percy's POV**

I sat in a private compartment on the 'Hogwarts Express', my trunk stowed beneath my feet.

I had been so busy over the past weeks that I had had no time to think about what had come before. Now, sitting here with nothing to occupy me, I couldn't hold out against thoughts of Annabeth's betrayal anymore.

It hurt, hurt so much that Annabeth had betrayed me. I had had nightmares about Tartarus before. These days, I seemed to get them tenfold a night without my girlfriend there. _Ex-_ girlfriend. She cheated on me. She chose this, not me.

I felt guilty for leaving those who had so stubbornly supported me behind, though. Clarisse, who had knocked three of her siblings out after they got friendly with Ryan. Nico, who had offered to get a few of his skeleton friends to beat my 'brother' up. Reyna, Frank and Hazel, who had IM'ed me every day in sympathy, and who would have been there if they could.

My eyelids began to droop, and I fell asleep.

 _Ryan was sitting on my old bed in the Poseidon cabin, smirking at the abandoned room. Then he crossed to the glowing fountain, and dumped a load of herbs by it._

 _I shifted, suspiciously. What was going on?_

 _Ryan picked up one cutting of plant and dropped it into the water. I moved forward to get a better view. Then the cutting blackened and burnt. Somehow, a beautiful scent rose from the shrivelled plant._

 _Ryan laughed to himself, but then there was a knock at the door. Panic flashed across his face, and he quickly gathered up the remaining herbs and shoved them under the bed. He hid the blackened piece up his sleeve, before putting a drachma beside the fountain so it looked like he'd been IM'ing someone._

What was he doing?

 _Then he called, "Come in!" hastily._

 _My heart clenched as Annabeth walked in. "Where's Percy?" she asked. "I can't find him anywhere!"_

" _Why do you want him?" Ryan asked with a slight sneer as he said 'him'._

 _Annabeth scowled. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because he's my boyfriend?"_

 _I choked. What? Did she still think we were dating? Hadn't she noticed I was gone?_

 _Ryan put on a face of innocence. "Er, Annabeth? Remember last night?"_

 _She arched one eyebrow. "Uh, yes. I went to bed early. Had some nightm-" her face darkened. "Why do you want to know?"_

 _He looked falsely concerned. "Um, well, I don't know how to say this, but you and Percy broke up last night when he cheated on you. He stormed out of camp. You came to me. You say you can't remember anything?"_

 _She hissed. "Stop lying. I would never break up with Percy. You're just jealous of him. Where is h-"_

 _Ryan whipped his hand out from behind his back and held the still steaming herd in front of Annabeth's nose._

 _Her eyes widened and she tried to move, but it was too late. She'd breathed in the smoke._

 _I wanted to yell, but it was too late, and I felt myself wake up._

 **Harry's POV**

After what seemed like forever, I was back at Hogwarts again, sitting at Gryffindor table, waiting for the Sorting to start.

Ron was impatiently tapping his cutlery on the table, Ginny was sitting a little further away from some people her age, and Hermione was intently scanning the table.

As the professors filed in, she let out a shriek. "Oh god!"

I looked at her amazed. "What? Dumbledore resurrected?"

She swatted me. "Don't be silly, Harry- Ron- look! It's Mr Weasley!"

Ron gaped. "WHAT? Dad?"

I gazed at the table, and, sure enough, Ron's dad was sitting in the chair usually filled by the Muggle Studies professor.

"Blimey," Ron muttered. "Why didn't he say? Oh, this is embarrassing. Harry, can you hide me?"

I laughed. "Sorry, mate."

"Who else is there?" Hermione muttered. "Transfiguration- a witch I don't recognise."

Harry followed her gaze and, indeed, saw a middle-aged witch, sensible and austere, a bit like McGonagall. Then he looked towards the DADA professor, and his jaw dropped.

It was a man maybe his age, with messy black hair, tanned and muscular skin, and mesmerising sea-green eyes that constantly shifted, changing colour.

Practically all the girls were nudging each other and looking possessive already.

"Can he teach?" Hermione whispered. "Is he experienced? He looks awfully young."

Ron nodded fervently. "Too right. I'm not taking lessons from someone my age!"

"Ron!" Hermione admonished.

I studied the new professor. His eyes flicked around the room. He looked guarded… this was a guy used to fighting for his life, that much was sure.

Suddenly, I couldn't wait for our next DADA lesson.


	4. Chapter 4

**This chapter is really HP world centered. I'm not sure if I like it as much as the last one, but…**

 **Thank you so much to everyone who took the time to read, review, follow or favourite this fanfic! We're only on the third… well, fourth now chapter and yesterday I had 700 VIEWS! That is awesome, guys! Please keep it up!**

 **Shout out to:**

 **UpDownAndAllAround**

 **GreenOtter467 (btw you should read their fanfics)**

 **JuiceBox16**

 **Poseidon'sWizardingGuardian (I think she used to be known as ThaliaKane)**

 **AutumnLeaves03 (thank you so much for being incredibly supportive)**

 **888aaa22**

 **ibrokeoutofazkaban (LOVE THE NAME!)**

 **PiperMclean360**

 **I really, really want to give a shout out to all my favouriters (not a word but what am I supposed to say) and followers too, but seeing as there are, by my count, 72 of you (which is TOTALLY, epicly amazing) I don't think I have enough time.**

 **Anyway… this Author's Note is getting massive, so… on with the show!**

 **Percy's POV**

It was really, really boring sitting at the table with the all the teachers (who, by the way, were all at least 20 years older than me), waiting for the feast to start.

I shifted uncomfortably on my chair, as I was all too aware of the hundreds of glances directed my way. Sure, I didn't exactly have a girlfriend any more, but… I winced. I wasn't supposed to think about _that place._

Instead, focused my attention on the speech that the Headmistress, Professor McGonagall, was giving.

As I had got off the train, she had immediately found me and taken me up to the castle, talking about Hecate and Dumbledore and how I couldn't tell anyone. Well, I had that figured. Just because Thalia calls me Kelp Head doesn't mean I'm totally stupid.

Absentmindedly, **(this bit is for Poseidon'sWizardingGuardian)** I fingered my stick- no, _wand._ I had to get used to the fact that wizards used these things to defend themselves. Actually, I was pretty good with it. I'd practised quite a few not-so-minor spells, and they'd all come to me immediately. I guessed it was a side-effect of being a powerful demigod.

I rolled it between my fingers carefully, then balanced the point on the tip of my thumb. Don't ask me why… let a boy be ADHD. It clattered off a little louder than I meant, and a few people looked around. Ah… oops.

 **Harry's POV**

Halfway through the latest rendition of Filch's Banned List, my attention was slightly diverted. Namely, by the new DADA professor trying to balance his wand on the tip of his finger.

I nudged my friends slightly. Hermione, however, appeared already to have noticed, and was staring with a slightly scandalised air. Ron had a bemused expression on his face.

"Is he mad?" he muttered under his breath.

"Don't be stupid," Hermione murmured back, a little waspishly. "Of course McGonagall wouldn't have employed anyone who couldn't teach."

She looked a little like she was trying to convince herself.

I couldn't shake the feeling, though, that this guy was more than he seemed.

Up at the High Table, the speech was just nearing its end. Then I heard, "We welcome three new teachers to aid us this year. Professor Kerr ( **sorry, couldn't resist)** will be taking, Transfiguration in my place, Professor Weasley (Ron moaned, and I saw a few Slytherins looking scathing), who will be teaching Muggle Studies and Professor Jackson will lead Defense Against the Dark Arts, and will also be taking over as Head of Gryffindor house."

"Professor Jackson," I murmured, as the guy gave a good-natured, somewhat troublemaker grin and leant back in his chair.

A grin spread over my face. This year was definitely going to be interesting.

 **Hermione's POV**

After we had eaten, I sat up expectantly. According to the information sent to us, the Heads and Prefects would be announced after the feast.

I could say I didn't care all I liked, but the truth was, I did. I really, really hoped I would be the Head Girl this year. And if Ron was Head Boy, and Harry the Quidditch Captain again, it would be perfect! Although… I did doubt a little that my boyfriend would be made Head Boy. Responsibility wasn't _exactly_ his strongest suit.

McGonagall clapped her hands. "Attention! For those of you that didn't bother to read the end of your letters… you may have noticed that we have not yet allocated positions of responsibility."

There was a surprised murmur. Had _no one_ read their letter properly? Honestly. Some wizards.

Then a short wisp of smoke flew out of her wand, and elongated into a massive piece of parchment which hung behind the High Table, obscuring the hangings from view.

I frantically scanned it, heart thumping.

Then I let out a shriek. "Oh, Merlin!"

Right at the top of the board read,

 _Head Girl- Hermione Granger_

 _Head Boy- Draco Malfoy_

…

Ron was staring in disbelief. "No way… _Malfoy_ is Head Boy? What are they _thinking_ putting a slimy git like him in charge?"

Harry nodded grimly. "Well… look on the bright side. I'm joint Quidditch Captain with Ginny!"

I was too busy looking at the top of the list, my mouth a perfect 'o' of surprise.

How could this be happening? How?

 **Percy's POV**

I was given private accommodation in the teacher's quarters. However, my rooms appeared to have some kind of charm put on them, as they were somehow a lot bigger on the inside than the outside.

McGonagall quickly showed me my rooms, looking harassed for time. "The password is Hogwarts for the moment," she said hastily. "But you can change it at any time by tapping this brick here- no, this one- which I'd recommend you do at once. You have a normal suite, but it's been magically extended to include a training area, weaponry and library, because you will have to read up on this world a little. I've also added a soundproofing charm, just in case."

"Thanks," I murmured. "Really."

She gave me a small, rare smile. "That's quite alright, Mr Jackson. Now, if you'll excuse me… I really must go."

 **Okay… That ending did** _ **not**_ **finish how I thought it would. Should I put Dramione in? I don't know. That would be a whole different side plot.**

 **Review and tell me what you think!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Yay! Lots of really, really nice responses again. Thank you so much. Especially giraffesplaycello (if you're reading this, thank you so much! I felt so happy after I read your review).**

 **The Dramione Question** **:**

 **So far, the sides are pretty even.**

 **Dramione: 4**

 **Ron x Hermione: 5**

 **Permione: 1**

 **Sorry in advance, but I'm not going to do serious Permione, as I AM NOT ABANDONING PERCABETH! THEY WILL BE REUNITED!**

 **However, I might have Hermione having a minor thing for Percy. I don't know until the Dramione thing is settled. No, there isn't an actual poll, but you can still review :-)**

 **Oh, and just one thing… I'm NOT abandoning my other stories, and helpful suggestions would be REALLY appreciated to help me get over this horrible writer's block.**

 **Percy's POV**

Dream (uh-oh):

 _I was standing in Tartarus, but Annabeth was nowhere to be seen. I frantically ran in circles, calling for her desperately._

 _No response._

 _Something crashed behind me, and I heard a distant roar- Polybotes._

" _I smell his filthy blood! The Sea-god's son! He is close!"_

 _My heart pounded in my chest, and I scrambled away, reaching my pocket for Riptide. There was nothing there._

 _Then, I heard a nasal voice behind me. "Percy Jackson."_

 _I spun around to come face to face with my favourite brother- Ryan. And he was holding both his weapon, Xiphos, and Riptide._

" _Ryan," I growled, but my voice was so dry I could barely hear myself. Acidic air stung my lungs, making each breath a long, torturous struggle to survive._

 _He casually swirled the blades around each other, and began to speak again, but this time it was with Gaia's voice._

" _So young, little demigod," she crooned. "So naïve. Abandoned, betrayed by those you held most dear. Even that girl you went through my husband's domain for- what was her name? Annabeth?"_

 _A mocking smile spread over her- Ryan's, but at the same time Gaia's- lips. "I would love to hear your screams," she purred. "Love to see you rot in the deepest pits of the Void, over and over, for all eternity. But that would be no longer be of any advantage to my side."_

 _At that, I found my voice again. "I defeated you," I whispered. "You're gone. This is just a dream, and I can wake up."_

Wake up.

And I shot out of bed, duvet tangled all over me, the vestiges of my unspoken screams still ringing in my ears.

 **Hermione's POV**

I sprang out of bed in the morning.

Damn. It was already too late to go to the library. I wanted to get some books on jinxes out, to practise!

Oh, well. Tugging my robes over my head, I hurried out of the dormitories with Parvati and Lavender, both giggling over something- or someone… and I had a shrewd idea who. Cough, Professor Jackson, cough.

I had no idea how a guy that young could even be qualified to teach us DADA. Although… apparently he was American, so maybe they did things differently there. If they finished school at sixteen, and the process to get a teaching degree and a defence degree took three years instead of four… Maybe it was just possible.

I practically ran into the Great Hall, my bag- which may or may not have been completely full with new books, quills and equipment- bouncing on my back, something sharp digging into me. I wondered what it was- maybe the new, 3,000 page book I'd got from Diagon Alley. That might be it.

I found Harry, Ron, Ginny and Neville sitting together already and hastened to join them.

Sitting down next to Ron and shoving some eggs and toast onto my plate, I pulled out my timetable in between sips of orange juice.

"Okay," I murmured. "It says that, owing to the fact there aren't a lot of us, all eighth years have doubled classes together."

Harry nodded. "So what do we have today again?"

I scanned the timetable, my lips pursed. "First period… Charms. Then- oh, look. DADA."

Neville leaned over. He had lost the nervous, worried look that had constantly pinched his face for as long as I'd known him.

Wars did that to people.

"I suppose we'll finally get to see what Professor Johnson's like, then," he said.

"Professor _Jackson,_ Neville," I said patiently. Okay, maybe some things hadn't changed.

Ron nodded enthusiastically through a massive mouthful, food spewing out of his mouth.

I gave a weary smile. Why did I even date this guy?

 **Harry's POV**

Charms went normally enough. Hermione, after several agonizing (for her) minutes of watching Ron and I generally cause disaster with the Banishing charm we were supposed to be revising, performed our charms for us so we could chat.

None too soon, the bell rang. Stuffing quills and books into my bag, I fairly raced out the door- along with the rest of the class.

Looks like I wasn't the only one that wanted to see what DADA would be like, then.

When we arrived at the classroom, everything looked fairly normal. I plonked my stuff down at a desk with Ron. Hermione sat with Padma Patil, who was in her Arithmancy class.

Then, three minutes after the bell rang, Professor Jackson strode in, wlaking straight to the front. He turned, and my mouth fell open. He looked incredibly tired- like he had slept worse than not at all last night.

"Blimey," Ron muttered to me. "What's up with him?"

I frowned. "Don't know," I whispered back.

"I'd prefer you stopped talking now, Mr Potter," Jackson said, with an air of good nature. "Now, to the point. This year, we will not only be studying spells, jinxes, hexes and defensive charms, but also-" he looked momentarily confused- "Oh, yeah, physical fighting. Because it's all too easy to lose your wand in a fight, and you can bet the other side won't be above some dirty fighting. Wizards rely all too much on magic."

Despite the hesitation, it was actually a pretty good speech, and I felt myself smiling as I slipped into the lesson.

 **Sorry! I know that was really short and a bad ending, but I don't have much time today :-( I appreciate reviews! (Persassing starts next chapter)**

 **-thaliatheawesome**


	6. Chapter 6

**Once again, thank you all SO MUCH for every supportive comment posted! I love you guys!**

 **Also: yesterday this story had over 1,100 views in a day! Not that that's much for some writers, but for me, it's AMAZING. And that was all you guys!**

 **On the subject… has anyone read** **foreverskysong** **'s version of BoO? It is so good. And insanely long. And insanely incredible… I cried.**

 **Disclaimer: Mmm… as much as I'd like to own this … do you think my name is Rick Riordan, J.K. Rowling or something else utterly ordinary? Hint: not the first two options. By the way, my name is actually Lia.**

 **Percy's POV**

I finished my little speech about aims, syllabus, fighting, etc. I was actually pretty pleased with it. Who would have thought that Percy Jackson, supreme ADHD and dyslexia king, kicked out of seven schools straight and general bringer of disaster, would be a teacher? Not me.

At the end of the talk, this idiot with a confident sneer on his face stood up and said, "How do you know this stuff? We're wizards, not Muggles, anyway. 'Swords' and things are Muggle weapons."

I looked at him, feeling slightly amused, slightly annoyed. "Good point. Want to be in a demonstration with me?"

He looked a little apprehensive, but pushed back his sleeves and swaggered to the front. "I bet I'll win, anyway. You look younger than me. How are you even qualified to teach?"

Somewhere inside, part of me wanted to just drop the fancy wands and hit him, but I had to keep the pretence going. Forcing down my anger, I said, "I think you'll find I've faced… more than the average person. And, before we start insulting each other, can I have your name?"

He snorted. "Why? Going to report me for saying what I think?"

"No," I said, inspecting my fingernails. "I just wanted to see if it went well with 'can't fight.'"

Near the back of the room, I heard muffled laughter. I guessed this guy wasn't exactly popular. Funny… he seemed like such a charmer.

"Zacharias Smith," he said in nasal tones. "Pureblood."

I nodded, mock thoughtfully. "Zacharias the Great…Hmm. Doesn't have much of a ring to it."

His face darkened. "Are we going to do this demonstration you mentioned, _Professor?"_

I shrugged. "You make the first move. Use any jinx, hex or curse that might occur to you. I will attempt to beat you with nothing but a sword."

At that, I walked over to my desk, reached under it and quietly uncapped Riptide, before standing up as if it looked like I'd just pulled it out of my bag. "Ready?"

His lips tightened into a thin line and he said, "Impedimenta!"

I raised my sword about an inch and blocked it easily; he only narrowly avoided it. The spell crashed into the window. Calmly, I pulled out my wand and murmured, "Reparo."

To my relief, the spell worked, and the broken window flew back together instantly. Then, while this Zacharias guy was still looking over his shoulder, I strode up to him, knocked his wand out of his hands and placed the point of my sword on his undefended chest. He looked down in disbelief.

That was quicker than I'd thought.

Trying to look nonchalant, I indicated he should sit down and strode back to my desk, recapping Riptide.

"So, as you can see," I said. "Zacharias could not defend himself once his wand was out of play. So, this term, we shall be using a combination of physical and mental-" I screwed up my face- "Sorry, _magical_ defence and offence. Any questions?"

Mostly, the class just looked agape, until a guy from the left side of the classroom spoke up. "How can you fight like that?"

I panicked for a second. "Oh, er… I went to a ca- a _school,_ in America, where we learned both kinds of fighting."

I glanced at the clock and- hopefully not visibly- relaxed. "Oh, sorry. We've almost overrun. No homework. I hated it at school… Next lesson we'll be selecting the perfect weapon for each of you with a special spell I'll teach you. You can go, now."

 **Ron's POV**

I snatched up my stuff and hurried out of the classroom with Harry and Hermione to our double free. This year, with no important exams, we not only had frees, but nowhere near as much revision to do as we had before.

Hermione, of course, hurried off to the library even though we didn't have homework. I love her, but… mate, she's just a little OCD when it comes to work and grades.

I shared a glance with Harry, and we ran up to the dormitories to get our brooms.

 **Hazel's POV**

I was sitting in my room at Camp Jupiter with Frank- no, we were _not_ kissing! Why does everyone seem to do that so much now? The 1940's were much easier.

Anyway, I was sitting with Frank when my brother shadow-travelled in.

"Nico!" I shrieked. "What-why-?"

He gave me a frantic grimace. "I'm sorry guys, but something terrible's happened!"

"What?" I said in concern.

"Percy's vanished and we can't locate him, and Annabeth's in the infirmary and the campers are rioting."

\- _this is a line break, it shows that time has passed…_ -

After I forced Nico to calm down and tell us what happened, he slowly began. "You know about Percy's new jerk brother, Ryan, who's turning everyone against him?"

Frank nodded in agreement. "Yes, and I'm so sorry we couldn't be there, but Octavian's old sup-"

"Shh," I said gently. "It doesn't matter. Keep going, Nico."

"Well… Annabeth was cheating on him with the jerk."

" _What_?" I practically screamed. This could not be right. They are the most devoted couple ever! Percy literally went through hell to be with her! Maybe I misheard him or- or-

"And, anyway, Poseidon turned up at camp a few days later, asking to see both his sons. And no one could find Percy."

"They only just noticed?" Frank almost hissed. "Sorry. Go on."

"Yes, well… people eventually concluded he hadn't been able to face Annabeth breaking up with him, and he'd run off 'like a coward'. As if Percy Jackson could ever be a godsdamn coward… And they all believed it, too, because they all hated him by now. Even f*cking Jason and Piper. Only ones sticking up for him were me and Clarisse, but I'm not exactly popular and she didn't have her cabin as back-up."

He took a deep breath. "And, then, Poseidon chose to believe them. He said Ryan was his favourite son- did you know, he raised him from birth? That's how we didn't even know about the creep… The big clever Sea God didn't bother with Percy, I see. And then Ryan dazzled everyone with his sword- which is like the exact copy of Riptide- and they all swarmed around him."

"But what about Annabeth?" I said urgently. "She wouldn't just cheat on Percy, and her being in the infirmary-"

"I'm getting there! So, about two weeks later, Annabeth got suddenly taken ill. Not even the Apollo campers knew what it was, but then Chiron had a hunch and tested her blood. He found traces of the Godsbane drug. It's these herbs you soak in warm water and if you breathe them in afterwards… it's like your will sin't your own. You'll act exactly how the drugger wants you to act. And I knew it was Ryan."

I had my hands at my mouth. "He was _drugging_ her?"

Nico nodded grimly. "I'm sure of it. And regularly, too, because it only lasts for 72 hours. But something must have gone wrong- she'd been on it far too long- and she fell into a coma."

He took a breath and continued. "So I told Chiron, and I had a pretty strong case, and he might've started to believe me. But then Ryan butted in."

Shaking with anger, he said, "He persuaded Chiron it must've been Percy, that he'd felt guilty and fled from Camp. And _Chiron actually believed him._ I wouldn't be surprised if he was drugged too."

"But, because it's an illegal drug, any demigod has the right to track him down and capture him on sight. There are massive investigations, Poseidon's scouring the sea- but no one can find him, and Iris-messages or spy communications aren't working. He hasn't died, because I'd know."

"So would I," I whispered. Frank punched the bed in consternation.

"And now, that _vlacas_ is in charge of Camp, Percy's a wanted fugitive, and Annabeth, the only person who could possibly set it right, is in a coma." finished Nico bitterly. "Could life be any better?"

A breath hissed between my fingers, still pressed to my mouth. "Yes, Nico. It could. Because Camp Jupiter can't do anything about this, no with the riots going on."

Frank's warm brown eyes stared concernedly into my face. "Hazel, this is more important. I can't let Percy die or get captured… he's one of the only real friends I have. Somehow, we have to wake Annabeth up, find Percy and get them to counter Brad. If the drugs wear off, Annabeth should be able to remember everything that's happened to her… don't ask me how I know. But, anyway, it's our only chance. Reyna has the situation more than under control here, I'm sure. The three of us have to go and find Percy."

Nico nodded slowly. "You're right. I can't let Percy die. We need him, and if we don't sort this mess out the camps will fall apart."

"Where can he be, though?" I said helplessly. "Not the ocean, I guess, if Poseidon can't find him. Not anywhere in the US, if Iris messages aren't working. Iris is honour bound to serve the Olympians- she couldn't hide Percy from one of the Big Three like that. I guess… Alaska?"

Frank shook his head. "What would there be for him there? You're right about the other stuff… his mom's dea- wait!" he said suddenly. "Percy doesn't have enough money to get a flight anywhere. He hasn't shadow-travelled, because obviously neither of you have helped him. Wait- is Mrs O'Leary still at camp-?"

Nico nodded. "Yeah. I would know if he'd shadow-travelled, anyway, and Hazel might too. No, I see where you're going. He could have only used mortal transport. My guess is that he's gone to some relation or friend."

I nodded. "I think you're right. But who did Percy know that we didn't?"

We looked at each other hopelessly, and I realised that I didn't really know my closest friend at all. I knew next to nothing about his past, his old life. Neither he or Annabeth had ever really that discussed with us. Maybe she would know? But we couldn't wait for her to wake up.

Then, Nico snapped his fingers. "Okay. He doesn't have any close family left, right? I know that much. And he only speaks English, discounting Ancient Greek and Latin. So, a country that speaks English. Poseidon wouldn't have started loking for him for a while, so he could have crossed the sea if he was quick. What if- what if he went to England?"

 **Suspense! I know some of you are probably thinking, 'But Percy went to England for a completely different reason!' Yeah, but I figured they might look there anyway. Sooo… yeah! Unicorns exist, cupcakes are awesome and so are my reviewers :-)**

 ***that's a cut!***

 **-thaliatheawesome**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the wait! Can I just say… everyone reading this is awesome, if you have liked it enough to read to this chapter! Special thanks to aviendhaphiragon, who is now this story's beta!**

 **Lou Ellen's POV**

I was sitting in the strawberry fields, sharing a gloomy afternoon with my friend Cecil.

Ever since the events of three days ago, camp had been in turmoil. Most people were supporting that idiot Ryan. The only ones who were openly defying them were Nico di Angelo and Clarisse La Rue.

I would have been with them - should have - but my cabin were completely against Percy, and even the senior counselor couldn't do much if her entire cabin was against her. Cecil, I knew, hated Ryan as well, but there were still loads of kids in Hermes, and ever since Percy had 'insulted' Travis and Connor, they were all on Ryan's side as well.

I was completely lost in thought, so I was more than a little surprised when the shadows in front of me rippled and Nico, the Roman praetor Frank, and his girlfriend Hazel appeared.

After being stunned by the sudden appearance for a moment, I ran up to them, hugging Hazel. I knew her well - she was skilled with the Mist and had stayed with the Hecate cabin on several occasions.

"Nico?" Cecil asked in shock. "What are you guys doing here?"

Nico sighed. "Aside from the fact I live here?"

Hazel turned to him and said gently, "I think they mean right here, Nico. Not in Camp."

He swatted her, groaning. "I made a _joke_ , Hazel. People do that even when their dad is old creep-face…. Oh, sorry, guys. I messaged Clarisse to meet us here; she should be here soon. Here's my plan..."

And then he told us what he wanted us to do.

 **Annabeth's POV**

It was dark, that's all I knew.

Distorted images swam past my eyes- a bronze sword, flashing past my head; a guy with venomous, pond-scum eyes; Thalia, who then turned into Luke and said, "I won't ever hurt you, Annabeth."

Annabeth? Oh. My name.

Everything had a hazy quality, and then it all slipped away. I was standing by a forest's edge. In my distant view, I could see a grand castle and… a lake? Yes, a lake, and there were three figures by the water.

I drifted closer. A brunette with bushy hair was gesticulating wildly like she was ranting about something. A red haired boy was listening, shifting like he was bored, and another scrawny guy had Percy's hair, and emerald-coloured eyes.

 _You shouldn't be seeing this_ , a voice said in my head that sounded a little like Athena. _Wake up. They need you. You have to wake up._

But I felt myself slipping away again, back into the recesses of the darkness.

 **Percy's POV**

By the end of the day, I was worn out.

I'd had two single lessons- a class of tiny first years looking excited and vague, and a load of eighth years almost my own age, with an annoying idiot who thought I couldn't fight. At least I managed to make him look stupid…

That would have all been fine, but I had a more taxing double in the afternoon. The seventh years were basically doing the same stuff as the eighth year this term, so we progressed to the choosing-a-weapon stage. It was actually just a pretty simple spell McGonagall had recommended to me that allowed you to pick the best weapon for you magically.

Obviously, I hadn't given them Celestial bronze. It couldn't be summoned by a wizard's magic, anyway. I had, however, brought in a range of steel weapons such as knives, spears and swords - nothing too big or long-ranged.

None of the students were showing exceptional potential, but there was this one red-haired girl - I think her brother was one of the eighth years - who was fairly good with a dagger.

Tonight, I had to check that the Gryffindor first-years were settling in okay, etc. I was actually kinda looking forward to it. They were all in such awe of me as to be funny.

 **Sorry it's short! I didn't have much time… again. But my exams are over! Yay!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Okay… so, contrary to popular belief, I'm not dead. Just back from some writer's block.**

 **Thank you so, so much for the 117 people who are following this story! You guys are great!**

 **Harry's POV**

I was curled up on a sofa in the common room with Ginny, watching the roaring flames contentedly, when Hermione clambered through the portrait hole, her face pink with exertion.

"Did you run all the way here?" Ron asked in amusement. "Honestly, Hermione, what homework could be _that_ important?"

She rolled her eyes impatiently, still panting slightly. "I've come from-"

"The library _,"_ Ginny muttered under her breath.

"-the library. I needed to look something up - I'm not sure if Professor Sprout was _quite_ clear about the differences between the two species of the Asian Venomous Tentacula... Anyway, I've been thinking about Professor Jackson."

"Thinking? How so?" Ron asked, dropping the sarcasm he had been using previously.

"Well..." Hermione plonked her overflowing bag on a table that looked on the verge of collapse. "Don't you think it's strange?"

"What?" I asked. "The fact his tie was backwards?"

She shook her head. "Don't be silly - was it? But what I mean is he's arrived so quickly. We know for a fact McGonagall must have found him at the last minute, because there weren't any books on the list, and now he's asked us to get _Advanced Theory of Magical Defense_ for theory use in the coming term as well as _Physical and Mental Fighting._ So they must have sent an owl to America really quickly. Also, it seems rather ... strange ... that he knows how to use a sword, and he was very vague about his history in general."

Ron shrugged. " 'Mione, I love you and all, but don't you think sword-fighting could just be part of their curriculum in America? And what's it to you if a new teacher hasn't immediately disclosed his entire history to us? I think you're just annoyed about this whole Head Boy Draco thing."

She scowled. "Well, of course I am! We have this meeting with McGonagall tonight, and I bet it will be torture."

Ron groaned. "I'm sorry, but I am currently experiencing my own personal form of torture in having my own _dad_ here, teaching. I've managed to avoid him so far-"

"Honestly, Ronald, it's not that difficult." Ginny broke in. "You don't even take Muggle Studies. And, anyway, Harry lets you see that map thing all the time. You can just check he's not heading your way when you leave the tower for lessons."

Anticipating a sibling fight, I interrupted her quickly, saying, "Hey Ginny, we have Quidditch trials tomorrow. Want to come practice?"

Ron let an angry breath escape him. "I fly, too!"

Hermione yawned. "Not tonight. I need you to help…"

I glanced at Ginny, and we ran out of the portrait hole together.

 **Percy's POV**

After meeting the first years that evening, I was still feeling far too wired to crash. Instead, I headed to my personal training room in my quarters and pulled out Riptide.

Grabbing it, I let out some of the anger and hurt I'd experienced over the past months. With a yell, I brought it down furiously on a dummy wearing black robes and some weird mask. With five quick strokes, it lay in the dust at my feet.

After fifteen minutes or so of intensive practice, I stood back and stowed my pen in my jeans. I headed to the bathroom and walked over to the stack of fluffy towels.

Yanking my clothes off and wrapping a towel around my waist, I turned on a few of the taps around my pool-sized bath, watching with some pleasure as the surface of the rapidly rising water was covered with rainbow bubbles, jets of cleansing potions, and a shimmery silver steam rising up above everything else.

Once it was full, I slid in, flipping onto my back and relaxing in the humid atmosphere.

I took a breath and slipped underwater. As ever, I could breathe perfectly well, but I willed the dry protection to vanish. Then, I dived down and skimmed the bottom of the pool. Music was playing from the speakers. I recognized the song: '21 Guns' by Green Day… one of Thalia's favorites. Tears slipped from my eyes at the thought and mingled with the perfumed bathwater.

Blinking furiously, I broke the surface, sending ripples in every direction.

 **Hazel's POV**

Nico's plan was pretty brilliant apart for one minor detail. As I pointed out, England was definitely not the only major English-speaking country. There were plenty of other options.

My brother was pretty stubborn, but I did manage to get him to concede to the fact that, yes, this was true. After about an hour of negotiations, he decided to send a team to check Australia. Yes, we really were sending a couple of teenagers to rake the entire country for one guy.

Which was how we ended up speaking to Lou Ellen and Cecil. Actually, they were a lot easier to persuade to do the job than I'd figured. The problem of getting someone to cover for them, however, was a lot harder, since Chiron himself was convinced of that *sshole Ryan's innocence.

I frowned dejectedly. This wasn't going to be easy.

 **Annabeth's POV**

 _He was in my sleep. The guy with the augur's eyes. Standing at the beach, clutching a pile of herbs._

 _I watched for a few seconds. Then, he turned to face me, and his face went curiously blank._

 _For a moment he looked a little like my dad, when I was a baby and he hadn't married yet. But then his wife appeared, Bobby and Matthew spiraling out of nowhere to stand at their side, in the manner of dreams. They smiled and waved, but my dad's expression was sour. The beginnings of his ever-growing hatred of me._

 _The smoky figures of my stepmom and brothers vanished._

 _My dad's face blurred into someone who looked like ... Chris Rodriguez? No ... Luke. He laughed gently and beckoned me._

 _I took one step forward, as insubstantial as a wraith, but then his face twisted into a sneer. His eyes turned golden. It was Kronos all over again._

"They betrayed you," _a voice said in the back of my mind._ "The ones who loved you left. You are all alone. Alone."

 _But then it faded away, along with the beach, and I was alone and lost. Alone and lost._


	9. Chapter 9

**Hey! I'm starting something new this chapter. I'm going to do the POVs a little like Uncle Rick does it in HoO. So, based on one character but not actually first person, you know?**

 **The only one that will still be first person is Percy, for obvious reasons.**

 **Disclaimer: I was always under the impression I was under 40, you know? (FYI, Rick Riordan is 50 and J.K.R is 49… no, I'm not a stalker, I just looked that up now).**

 **Hazel**

The next day, Hazel met up with the other four down at a secluded area of the beach. She and Frank had shadow-traveled back to Camp Jupiter for the night to tell Reyna what was going on, and Reyna had said it was fine. She probably would have chosen to come with them if she hadn't been so stressed with the Senate problems, in fact.

Anyway, from what Hazel could gather, she didn't seem to mind losing 'Praetor Zhang' for a while. He was obviously a great fighter, but he wasn't any good at politics or speeches.

"I've had an idea," muttered Cecil. "I'm going to pretend that my great-uncle died or something and Lou Ellen offered to come with me for support back home. It's not in the middle of the summer at the moment... so it should be okay."

Nico nodded. "I'll just get someone to mention I'm helping with the riots at Camp Jupiter, but, honestly, I don't think anyone will really notice if I'm gone. They're used to me leaving randomly."

"Jason might notice," Hazel pointed out.

Nico laughed lightly. "Hazel, Jason is being such an idiot at the moment he's probably forgotten I'm even here. Seriously, you should see him dissing Percy. Brad and he are like best buddies or something now. I think all the attention he's getting, being one of the main people in charge of the hunt for Percy, is going to his head."

She winced. Sure, she hadn't been that close to Jason, but he'd always seemed to her like a good person.

Next to her, Cecil rolled his eyes. "Jason's _always_ been like that. He's just a stuck-up prat... Honestly, Nico, I never got why you hung out with him at all."

Cecil didn't share Hazel's sentiments about Jason, then.

Frank's arm encircled her shoulders. "Okay," he said. "We've got that sorted now. We can't all leave at exactly the same time, though. It would look weird."

"No kidding," Lou Ellen said. "How about you three- Frank, Hazel, Nico- leave first, because you're checking out England, right? Cecil and I can go in a couple of days. I honestly don't think it's that likely he's gone to Australia."

"You're right." Hazel murmured. "The three of us can go today. There's not much to pack… obviously spare clothes, drachmas for Iris messages, mortal money, maybe a few denarii as well? And then ambrosia, nectar, some normal food and weapons. We'll be fine." That should be good. It wasn't like they would need much, anyway.

 **Harry**

Harry's first class the next day was Charms, so he, Ron, and Hermione headed down to the classroom after a hurried breakfast. Without waiting, Ron shoved the door straight open. The three of them spilled inside - and jumped.

At the front of the classroom, Professor Jackson was talking to Professor Flitwick (which was kind of funny as he was probably over two-and-a-half feet taller).

Both Professors spun around at the sudden disruption.

"What are you doing?" asked Jackson in surprise.

"Um… sorry," Hermione stammered. "We have a lesson here and we thought…"

"It was empty?" he said with a nonchalant air, as if he couldn't care less if they were in there or not. "It's fine… sorry, if you'd just…"

Harry nodded, both he and Ron backing out as fast as they could. Hermione, however, stood still. "Professor, what's that on your arm?" Her voice shook slightly, and her face, from where Harry was standing, seemed to have taken on a slightly paler tinge than normal.

Professor Jackson frowned. "What…? Oh, you mean this." He pulled up the sleeve on his left arm, making the strange markings there clearly evident. Right where the Dark Mark was on the Death Eaters, there was a tattoo. A very strange tattoo. It consisted of four letters, SPQR, with some kind of weird fork thing and two lines, one looking slightly more fresh than the rest of the pattern.

"Just a little memoir from a summer camp I went to." Harry might have imagined it, but he thought there was a newly guarded edge to his voice. Jackson then continued quickly, "Sorry, but I really do need to finish this talk, so if you could…?"

The three of them went out the room.

That lesson, they were paired up to learn the Heating Charm - a small yet surprisingly complicated spell that warmed the air around each person the perfect amount, being different for everyone.

" _Caldum optibum_!" exclaimed Ron, swiping his wand vigorously through the air. He yelped as the desk caught on fire.

" _Aguamenti_ ," Harry said tiredly. "Ron, it's less of a flick at the end- try it a little more gently- and it's caldum _optimum_ , by the way, not 'optibum'."

Across the room, Padma Patil and Hermione were practicing. " _Caldum optimum_!" Hermione said, swishing her wand through the air. Immediately, the air seemed a little less warm. Harry's aching head began to feel better. From where he was standing with Ernie Macmillan, Neville stopped shivering like he was on a iceberg.

"Very good, Miss Granger! Well done!" Flitwick called in his squeaky voice.

Ron rolled his eyes, twisting his wand in his hand and murmuring dramatically, "And Hermione gets it perfectly for the 1197th time in a row!"

Before they knew it, Flitwick was standing in front them, waiting for them to amaze him with their brilliant spell work.

"Um… _caldum optimum_!" Harry said, trying the spell. He almost dropped his wand. The temperature turned freezing. Oops.

Hurriedly changing it back, Flitwick shot him a reproving glance and turned to Ron. "Mr. Weasley?"

Ron was still imitating some professional announcer. "Er… hi," he said, looking at Flitwick and Harry with a slightly guilty expression.

"The spell?" Flitwick asked.

He had obviously forgotten what we were even doing. I muttered the incantation out of the corner of my mouth.

"Oh, right," he replied, not sounding at all 'all right' with the situation. The whole class had inexplicably turned to watch them. Harry saw Hermione looking desperate to demonstrate. Padma, on the other hand, looked rather sulky.

Ron looked panicky. " _Caldim optibim_!" he blurted out, waving his wand randomly through the air. Dean and Seamus ducked as a white jet of light shot past their ears, hit the ceiling and exploded into a shower of confetti and sparkles.

Harry hid discreetly beneath the desk, laughing, as Malfoy emerged, blond hair glittering pink.

 **Right… definitely not a random ending. (who said sarcasm :o XD) Sorry if this was a bit of a filler chapter! R &R!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hi! First of all, I am SO sorry this is about two weeks late. My beta couldn't do anything because her computer is broken, and I kept not having time to write. But her dis a double update for you! Hope you enjoy!**

 **For any Demigods or Magicians fans: I am sorry. I am having the worst writer's block EVER. Please, please help me out!**

 **Shout out to: jenniferrocks07, as you are so supportive and nice :) Please keep reviewing! it means a lot to me!**

 **Annabeth's POV**

 _I was hovering above a girl in a hospital bed. Blonde hair, tanned but clammy skin… I frowned. She looked like…_

 _Me. It was me. It felt like I'd left my body, because no matter how hard I concentrated, I couldn't get back down there._

 _I was beginning to panic when a figure walked in through the door. Short black hair, murky green eyes… His name was on the tip of my tongue, but I couldn't quite remember._

 _Something important was missing. This guy was bad news, I was sure of it._

 _I tried to scream a warning to my unconscious self… and then I was in my body again, eyes stubbornly closed._

 _I willed them furiously to open. Nothing happened._

 _I could feel the guy's breath on my face. Almost recoiling with disgust, I strained harder, but it felt like something heavy was pushing them down, commanding me to go back to the dream world I had been in for so long._

 _There was rustling, and then I could smell something bitter, poisonous._

 _I wanted to yell for help, but the scent just grew stronger, like someone was… like someone holding something in front of me on purpose._

 _I tried to stay awake, but it was forcing me asleep again… forcing me…_

 _I struggled in vain with myself before going completely unconscious again._

 **Piper's POV**

I was hanging out with Jason at Zeus's Fist. We had come down to… get some alone time, I guess. Away from the complicated camp politics and Jason having to lead the search for 'that traitor Percy'… you could say things were a little complicated.

"I still can't believe it, you know?" I asked sadly.

He glanced at me, confused. "What?"

I sighed. "Percy. He always seemed like such a good guy, you know… and he _was_ a hero, whatever you want to say. Part of me thinks… Jason, I don't think we know the full truth. He loved Annabeth. He would never drug her."

It had been preying on me a lot recently, and I was almost sure I was right.

Jason, however, laughed. "Um… no. Pipes, I knew him better than you did, no offence."

I shook my head insistently. "Jason, I'm a daughter of Aphrodite and anyone could tell they loved each other. He fell into Tartarus for her! He would never do that… for gods' sake, his _fatal flaw_ is personal loyalty!"

"That doesn't mean he wouldn't drug her if he knew about the relationship that Ryan and Annabeth were having! He just didn't want to admit she'd found someone better than him. Face it, Piper… Ryan really loves her. He's only just got here, and he's devoting all his time to sitting with Annabeth and finding Percy."

I stared at him in utter disbelief. "Cheat… _what?"_

He scowled. "Face it, Piper, it's true."

"Annabeth was cheating on Percy with _Ryan…_ And you _knew…_ And you _never told me or Percy?_ What is wrong with you, Jason?"

"Piper, it's not like that…"

I stepped back, my cheeks burning with anger. "Forget it."

"Piper-"

" _Forget it."_ I took another step back. " _Leave me alone. Forever."_

His mouth dropped open. "You can't just leave… this is all Jackson's fault! He's drugged you, like he did Annabeth, and…"

That was when I knew for certain. It was all a lie. Her relationship with Jason… 'Percy drugging Annabeth'… because it hadn't happened. Ryan had framed Percy, and now the whole camp was turned against him.

"Yes, Jason." My voice was steely cold. "I am _leaving,_ and you and I are _done."_

I knew what I had to do.

Find Percy Jackson and get the truth.

 **Hazel's POV**

We met up with Nico again that afternoon. Each of us carried a small pack with the things we needed. At the last moment I'd thrown in a couple of Hunters' tents, just in case we needed them.

"So… now we shadow-travel." Nico said awkwardly.

Frank frowned. "Guys… are we doing one jump, or…"

"One jump," I confirmed. "There are two children of Pluto- Hades, whatever, here, and we're not transporting a forty-foot statue here. So we should be able to do it…"

"All the way to England?" Frank asked, doubt etched on his face.

I nodded. "Yes. Now let's go, before you convince me not to and we waste more time."

Both boys laughed- a rare occurrence with Nico- and Frank and I gripped Nico's arm.

"Go."

We slipped into the shadows…

 **Heh, Piper has finally come round. I really think she could do better than Jason… so, yeah, they've broken up. Review and tell me who you want her to get together with in the end. Options are:**

 **Back together with Jason**

 **Another demigod (specify who)**

 **A Harry Potter character (specify who)**

 **Someone else…?**


	11. Chapter 11

**Harry**

Hermione was upset.

Harry could tell, because she was scowling so fiercely at her Ancient Runes essay that you expected it to shrivel up and leap into the fire rather than steam under her sizzling gaze any longer.

Next to him, Ron was sitting with his head in his hands, probably thinking about that little incident in Charms. Harry would have felt bad, except… well, he was too busy thinking about the glorious moment when the glitter settled in Malfoy's hair, his mouth hanging open, his newly-shimmering eyebrows lifted in shock.

That was, until Hermione threw her sizeable copy of _Interpreting Runes: Advanced Guide for Graduate Wizards,_ straight at his head.

"Ow!" he yelped. "What…?"

Hermione glared. "I don't understand! Nothing about him makes _sense!"_

Ohhh. Hermione didn't know something. _That_ was the problem, then.

She continued her rant. "He had a tattoo which isn't a Dark Mark- I've been researching it, and they're so full of dark magic it's impossible to transfigure them in any way. So he isn't a Death Eater after all! But he can fight so well, he's so vague about his background, he's really young, he never mentions anyone from his home, which I find a little strange… I just hate not knowing who he is."

Harry was fully ready to share an exasperated sigh with Ron, but this time he had to concede Hermione had a point. Sure, any of those things about Professor Jackson would have seemed okay by themselves, but all together… it was definitely suspicious.

Hermione looked a little distant. "I know! We need to find out what that tattoo was on his arm!"

Ron looked up. "You remember the design on it?!"

"Of course," she said in irritation. "You have the _worst_ memory ever, Ronald. It was the letters S, P, Q and R, with some lines and some pronged weapon. A trident, I think, although they're not usually that elaborate."

"Huh?" Harry asked.

She sprang up. "Come on! We have to go to the library. I know I recognise those letters… I knew them, I'm sure of it, but of course I haven't been living in the Muggle world for years apart from holidays, and they're usually in France or somewhere…"

Harry slowly got up, knowing there was no dissuading her.

Both boys followed Hermione out of the portrait hole, Ron glancing around cautiously in case his dad was anywhere near. He still hadn't got over Mr Weasley coming to Hogwarts, much to Harry's amusement.

They headed into the all-too-familiar library, Hermione dragging them over to the 'Muggle Books' section.

She scanned it carefully. "I'm sure I saw that phrase here somewhere recently… Harry, take this…"

She plonked several books onto Harry's arms.

"Ron, here-"

A lot more were loaded onto him.

"And I'll take these," she said with satisfaction. "Now, let's start with…"

- _line break_ -

Harry's eyes drooped as he slumped over an armchair in the Gryffindor common room, too tired to even watch Hermione scanning, _Weird and Wonderful Facts About Muggles,_ with narrowed eyes.

She looked up impatiently. "Read!"

Harry sighed, looking at the chair Ron had promptly curled up in and refused to get up from at about 2am… almost an hour ago.

He looked back at _A Concise History of Europe,_ and began to read. He flicked through the Bronze Age… looked over the Celts…

He reached a section entitled, ' _The Dawn of A Roman Britain,'_ and looked down it.

Soldiers… invasions...

Then he stopped.

"Hermione," Harry said quietly. "I've found it."

 **Jason**

Jason was sitting at the head table in the Big House with Ryan and Chiron.

The counsellors had called a meeting to discuss the Jackson Situation, as Jason now called it mentally.

He looked eagerly at the tired looking demigods. Then Butch, representative for Iris, stood and pulled a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, clearing his throat. "The Apollo cabin have reported that… well, Annabeth isn't making much progress. We need to find Per- um, Jackson, and force him to tell us how to heal her. On that front… not making much progress. Lord Poseidon does not think that Percy would have the resources or courage to leave this country, so we are still searching the States. There was a trail leading to Mississippi, but…"

He trailed off as Jason stood. "I think I know why Annabeth won't heal."

Ryan looked up at him, maybe hopefully? Jason pulled a convincing expression of great grief onto his face. If this worked, then he would rise in the gods' esteem. Heck, he might even become a god himself when they found Jackson!

Smirking inwardly, he coughed apologetically. "Percy had an accomplice in this camp who I believe has been continuing drugging Annabeth in his absence. One of his closest friends, but I would never have dreamed…" he sniffed, 'holding back tears'.

"I am sorry to report that earlier, Piper and I were walking by Zeus's Fist, when, all of a sudden, she tried to persuade me that Jackson was a good guy. Of course, I told her she was wrong… At my refusal, she tried to… to kill me."

Katie Gardner gasped. "No!"

Jason nodded, holding a hand over his eyes in false pain. "I easily beat her, thinking Jackson had drugged her as well, and I turned to get help, but she kicked me in the knees when my back was turned and ran off. Piper McLean is a tr- trai…"

He pretended it was too much and sank onto his chair. "I'm sorry…"

 **Piper**

Piper had to get away. Get away from her false love and the home that was being ripped apart. She had to find the truth…

Children of Aphrodite didn't have any special powers to transport, but they _did_ have charmspeak. And she did know which pegasus Percy rode…

She ran to the stables, searching among the animals until she found Percy's pure black mount. Blackjack.

He neighed and backed away. She sighed inwardly, considering her options. She didn't really want to trick him…

"I'm a friend of Percy's," she blurted out. "Piper, he might have mentioned me…? Oh, I don't…" She steeled her nerves. "Just, please, help me find him. I _have_ to know what really happened. Please."

She shivered as she looked up at the horse's trusting brown eyes. Would he accept her…?

Seconds passed. Minutes.

"Don't worry," she muttered, turning to go, accepting she was trapped in this camp.

Then, there was a rustling sound behind her.

She turned in disbelief to find Blackjack dipping his wing, head cocked at her.

 _Come on, then._

A smile broke out over her face.


	12. Chapter 12

**Sooo… A lot of people want Ryan to have drugged Jason, so he can get back together with Piper. I have had one OC request, as well.**

 **Keep reviewing! I love you guys! Reviews make me so happy :)**

 **Harry**

Hermione looked up, shocked. "You have? Wait…"

She somehow found the energy to leap up and pull the book round so they could both see it. "' _The well-known motto SPQR was, in fact, an acronym for the Latin phrase Senatus Populusque Romanus, meaning the Senate and People of Rome,'"_ she read, her eyes widening.

"But… why would Jackson have a Roman motto tattooed on his arm?" Harry asked in complete bewilderment.

Hermione tilted her head, looking thoroughly confused. "I don't know," she said slowly. "But I suggest we ask him."

 **Percy's POV**

I was hanging around in my classroom before lessons. Next lesson was the eighth years again, and I was feeling fairly good about it. We were going to move onto actually trying the spell today, summoning the perfect weapon, and I had a range of mortal weapons out, laid out on two tables that had been pushed together for the purpose.

I was a little surprised when three students walked in fifteen minutes before we were due to begin. No less, Harry Potter, his tall ginger friend who was called something Stoat, maybe, and the clever backtalker with the bushy brown hair.

"Yes? May I help you?" I asked slowly.

The girl walked right up to me and said bossily, "Can you tell me why you have a tattoo on your arm with the acronym SPQR, which stands for Senatus Populusque Romanus, an ancient motto for the Romans?"

"First of all," I said, hiding my surprise behind a mask of calm, "Don't you think I knew all that if it's tattooed on my arm? And, second, in answer to your question, no, I can't. Was there anything else?"

Her mouth opened and closed in indignation. Harry was blushing.

We all stood there for a few seconds before he grabbed both his friends' arms and dragged them out of the classroom.

 **Harry**

Harry could tell that it was a topic that Jackson didn't want to discuss. Eventually, after ages standing there looking and feeling awkward, he grabbed Ron and Hermione and dragged them out of the room before further damage could be done.

Later, in the lesson, Harry had forgotten about all of that- because they were standing in front of a row of very sharp weapons.

After the professor had explained the incantation, Harry pulled out his wand and waited before a few Slytherins, brandishing their arms, tried to summon a weapon.

No one got it first try. A knife jerked and stayed still for Millicent Bulstrode, while Head Boy Draco's actually moved ten centimetres before deciding it actually preferred the desk.

Harry swallowed and raised his arm, blurting out, " _Accio gladius,"_

He watched in amazement as the air in front of him shimmered. Then, in his hand, appeared a different sword.

An all too familiar sword.

The sword he'd last carried when it was drenched in the blood of a basilisk.

The sword of Gryffindor.

 **Sorry! That was a little short but I just had to end it there. Thank you to the person who suggested that scene to me a while back… you know who you are :)**


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey! 13** **th** **chapter (dun-dun-dun!) Before we start, I am very sorry, because someone reviewed Demigods or Magicians and asked me to update really nicely.**

 **I would love to, but I NEED YOU GUYS TO HELP. I am completely out of ideas with a case of Writerus Blockus, and it's no good just asking me to update and not offering ideas. Every single comment counts :)**

 **You may be wondering why I don't post this on the actual story. Answer: because I don't believe in posting a chapter and getting people excited before they realise it's an A/N. Sorry.**

 **Also, I am up for beta-ing! If you want me to beta something, check out my preferences on my profile.**

 **On with the show!**

 **Piper**

Piper didn't want to admit it, but she was scared to death.

If someone was looking at her mind, she mused, they might say, _you've flown on a dragon! Why are you scared now?_

But she had been with her two best friends. Her life hadn't been quite so messed up. Now, she was setting off into the unknown, a fugitive who was probably hunted by one of the three most powerful gods in Olympus… and she had just been betrayed by her boyfriend.

So, she was setting off to find Percy, with no help at all. Leo was probably touring Cuba or something with Calypso, and she wasn't about to ruin it for him. Since the war, Leo had decided he didn't want anything more to do with quests or being a hero and left Camp Half-Blood.

Piper could definitely relate.

"Blackjack?"

Normally, she would have felt a little stupid talking to a horse, but he was different.

"Do you know where we're going? Can you track Percy, or…"

He snorted, tossing his head in a gesture that might either have meant, _Of course I do,_ or, _please get off me now._

She hoped it was the former.

She shivered slightly, pulling her parka tight around her. Who knew it was this cold about ten hundred metres in the air? She really hoped it wasn't Khione messing with her again, although the goddess had been forced to submit to Boreas, and also swear an oath not to bring trouble upon any of the demigods- especially Piper.

And, if Zethes ever showed his face to her again, Piper would be forced to shove him off quite literally. Hard. But she was pretty confident she could handle either Boread.

Piper had thought that, after the Giant War, they might be able to have a peaceful life. She had even pictured her life in twenty years time, happily married to Jason in some nice flat somewhere in New Rome, round the corner from Annabeth and Percy.

Now? Her future in twenty years appeared to be the obituary: _Piper McLean. Former Hero of Olympus. Died falling off a pegasus into an angry Poseidon's domain. In lieu of flowers, please concentrate your efforts into murdering the demigods Ryan, son of Poseidon, and Jason, son of Zeus… assuming they haven't already been made gods for killing Percy Jackson._

She shuddered and snuggled closer to Blackjack's neck, hoping for some warmth.

 **Ryan**

There had been no sign of Jackson, which made Ryan _really_ mad.

Things appeared to be going well. He had got practically the whole camp convinced that Percy was a traitor, and Poseidon was backing him. Annabeth, the only one who could sway them or witness against him, was safely drugged away. Jason Grace was on his side with, ah, a little persuasion.

But there was one tiny little snag. _No one-_ not the terrified satyrs, the vigilant campers, the search parties of minor gods and nature spirits, the interrogated mortals, or the Hunt had even heard _anything._

And, as if that wasn't enough, not everyone was being as helpful as they could.

The Amazons, for one, flat out refusing to help and storming off. He wasn't sure they were convinced. Maybe he should nudge Poseidon into thinking they were traitors? That might fix the annoying praetor of Camp Jupiter, if her sister was in danger. She was also a problem, insisting they had problems with their Senate- why not have a dictatorship, it made things _so_ much easier- and that was the sole reason they couldn't help. The entire legion and both praetors incapacitated because of a few annoying soldiers. Pathetic.

Ryan walked away from the Aphrodite cabin, where he'd been snogging his new friend Drew Tanaka, and went into the Poseidon cabin, where he was surprised to find someone else.

"Jason." His eyebrows arched. "To what do I owe the pleasure? Thanks for the speech earlier today by the way. Disowning your girlfriend and all that… must have been hard."

"I didn't _own_ her in the first place…" Jason muttered.

Ryan sneered in displeasure.

"Ryan, I'm starting to think we should drop this. Maybe Per- maybe Jackson is a good guy. Who knows? I fought with him last year. He didn't seem like a traitor then."

Tut, tut. The good little dog was straining at his leash. Better bring him to heel.

"Jason," Ryan said smoothly. "Remind me why we're doing this."

He forced Jason to look at him. "Jackson is a traitor. Your scheming ex Piper is a traitor. In fact, she was probably cheating on you with Jackson himself."

Jason's eyes went unfocused. "Cheating."

"Yes. Now, what will you do better next time? You know I've been telling you to forget all those stupid, stupid rebellious thoughts. I'm a caring friend and I know you'll get called a traitor too. That'll be fun, won't it? Out there defying the might of Olympus with your ex-woman and the guy she cheated on you with, the traitor."

Jason shook his head, completely out, as I smirked and left the cabin.

 **Sorry! I know some of you wanted more on the action at Hogwarts, That will come next chapter!**


	14. Chapter 14

**Firstly, thank you SO much to all my amazing reviewers. We got so many last chapter! I checked my email at lunchtime. Then, just under two hours later, I checked it again and found 29 total new follows, reviews, favorites or PMs! You are incredible and I read every single suggestion I get and try to use as many as I can.**

 **Now… I am fully aware that 85% of people hate OCs in a fanfic. And I am usually among this crowd. However, I don't mind them as long as**

 **no heroic or super-powerful people e.g. Percy's nice twin sister.**

 **absolutely no children of Poseidon.**

 **No people that are paired with Percy, Annabeth or any Big Three kid.**

 **Other than that… I will include them! for example, I have had a request for an OC, Brent Solar, who is a musician son of Apollo. Possibly paired with Piper, possibly not. We shall see.**

 **Also, I want to give shout outs to:**

 **booklover2613**

 **AutumnLeaves03**

 **888aaa2**

 **writingmermaid (who posted an incredible review with lots of ideas)**

 **loverickriordan (guest) (you are in the running for my favourite guest reviewer)**

 **bigdogcop36**

 **TimeyWimeyBadWolf**

 **dieforrick (guest)  
lovelybooks (guest)**

 **DamBluePancakes**

 **I want to put all of you guys down, but you are probably getting bored of this A/N. More names posted next chapter! Press that review button and it might be you!**

 **Harry**

"Everyone's talking about it, mate!" Ron's excited voice carried across the dormitory. "About you getting the sword of Gryffindor. I caught a couple of first years saying you were Gryffindor's heir or something and that's why you were born to kill Voldemort, the heir of Slytherin… Hey, it's not true, is it?" He looked at Harry hopefully.

Harry sighed. "I hope not," he said dully. "Doesn't really matter if it is, does it?"

He had thought that, just maybe, all the whispering about him might be over. But it looked like that lesson was starting it up again…

 _Flashback to lesson:_

 _Harry stared in amazement at the sword in his hand._

 _Next to him, Ron was still trying to summon a weapon. He turned mid-attempt, saying, "Had any luck?" and then doing a double take. "What the bloody hell? That's Gryffindor's sword, isn't it? But what's it doing- you didn't- you summoned_ Gryffindor's sword, _Harry? That's your weapon? Mate, I knew you were brave, but this is over-"_

" _What's up over here?"_

 _Harry jumped about five feet as Jackson materialised next to them as if by magic._

 _Then, the professor caught sight of the sword in Harry's hand._

" _That's not one of mine…" he muttered. "Very nice, though…" he screwed up his face. "It looks goblin made, can't imagine how, usually spells don't work on them too well…" His eyebrows were furrowed as he exclaimed, "It's the sword from McGonagall's office! But how-"_

 _Harry glanced around to see that the entire class had turned to watch him. He groaned silently. Great. Just what he needed._

 _Jackson was eyeing the sword suspiciously before he finally said, "Give it here, Harry," and Banished it back to McGonagall's office with a flick of his hand, once more revealing the weird tattoo._

" _Class is finished!"_

 _As if on cue, the bell rang. Harry glanced around before reluctantly following the whispering students out of the classroom._

He looked at Ron's awestruck, eager face, and said slowly, "I think… I'm going to take a swim."

Ron frowned. "Mate… it's nearly winter! You'll drown!"

Harry shrugged and grabbed his dad's old cloak, before walking swiftly out of the room with it on.

If he didn't wear it, he'd never reach the lake for all the gossipers in Hogwarts.

 **Nico**

Nico di Angelo did _not_ like England.

It was wet. It was cold. Anyone he talked to (which wasn't many people) looked at him in surprise when he spoke.

Nico guessed they didn't meet many people around here who spoke like an American with a touch of a 1940's Italian accent.

So he sat in a bus shelter outside King's Cross with Hazel and Frank the bulldog and sulked, watching the rain pour down around them, sliding down the roof with a dismal air.

Another observation: everything in England appeared to be grey or green.

Or perhaps that was just the two people wearing silver and grey robes walking past him…

Wait. Robes?

Nico listened intently.

"Draco, dear, how _is_ hog warts?" the tall woman with the pale hair asked.

Nico frowned. What in Hades was 'hog warts'? She said it like it was some kind of place…

The guy with the waxed blond hair and the pointy chin- Draco? appeared to consider.

Eventually, he shrugged. "You know… Granger's being annoying. She doesn't get that I actually want to be friends with her… please _don't_ tell Father."

The woman looked a little nervous, but nodded.

"And the new professors… I've no idea how Weasley's dad is. Mainly because he hates me even though I don't actually take Muggle Studies. The Transfiguration person's okay. And Jackson, the DADA guy… I honestly don't know. Something seems slightly weird about him."

The woman looked scared now. "You don't think he's…"

Draco snorted. "A Death Eater… no. Just strange. Probably nothing…"

Nico nudged Hazel and Frank, only to discover they were listening as hard as he was. They shared a look, then they grasped each others' arms and shadow-travelled into the station to wait for Draco and his mother.

 **Percy's POV**

I was hanging out in the lake, chatting to a couple of merpeople.

They were interested to meet me, and they didn't call me 'Lord' like pretty much all sea creatures appeared to do, so that was fine by me. They were actually quite cool people… if you call them people. I do.

Eventually, though, I knew I had to come up.

I headed upwards and broke the surface so quickly I probably looked like some kind of underwater rocket.

I'd been practising with my powers lately. The lake was an ideal place to do it, and I was discovering a lot of cool things. For example, I could suck the moisture out of the air. I could make ropes or weapons of water that were pretty indestructible. I could make a shape in the air and freeze it, or make a water pegasus which flew supported by the water molecules in the air, or skim the waves, or canter on land. I could also surf without a surfboard, which was a pretty cool trick.

I knew that the gods would hate how powerful I was getting. Luckily, they had no idea. I was pretty well hidden here, and what if they didn't like it anyway? I didn't care anymore.

Breaking the calm skin, I swam easily over to the side and jumped out like a dolphin. Startling the guy who was standing on the water's edge… Harry Potter.

Damn.

"Oh… hey, Harry." I tried to sound casual, then remembered I was a teacher. "I mean… I was just swimming."

He looked at me in shock. "Er… how do you swim that fast?"

I fumbled for a lie. "Oh, it's… a special spell I use."

He nodded, looking half-convinced. "Well…bye."

"Bye." I went back to the castle.

It wasn't until much later that I realised I'd come out of the water dry.

 **Ok. So… where everyone is right now, because I appreciate it is possibly getting a bit confusing.**

 **Percy J., Harry P., Hermione G., Ron W. – at Hogwarts.**

 **Piper M. – with Blackjack, looking for Percy.**

 **Nico dA., Hazel L., Frank Z. – at King's Cross stalking Malfoy and Narcissa.**

 **Cecil, Lou Ellen – searching for Percy in Australia.**

 **Annabeth C. – drugged asleep.**

 **Ryan and Jason – being idiots in CHB.**

 **In other news… we got to do Creative Writing in French. My friend and I wrote this amazing story about a unicorn that gives candyfloss to the souls in the Underworld. Not random at all… (Btw, I have finally got my friend to start fanfiction. She is still working on her first fic. Username= tavvzbx).**

 **Love unicorns, eat chocolate and believe in PJO!**

 **-thaliatheawesome**


	15. Chapter 15

**Hi! thaliatheawesome here! My friend tavvzbx has posted the intro to her first story! Check it out if you're a Hunger Games fan!**

 **In other news… you guys were AMAZING with the reviews last chapter. Keep going! If we can get more than last chapter, it will be amazing!**

 **Shoutouts go to:**

 **Poseidon'sWizardingGuardian**

 **KookieKing**

 **Idea (guest)**

 **Guest (the one that sent me the OC)**

 **readorfacemywrath**

 **888aaa2**

 **Poseidon's Slytherclaw Erudite**

 **writingmermaid**

 **DamBluePancakes**

 **theNerdfromNaboo**

 **Guest (all of you!)**

 **AutumnLeaves03**

 **bigdogcop36**

 **GreenOtter467**

 **V (Guest)**

 **I am quite aware some of these names were also on the last chapter. They are just so awesome I had to put them again…**

 **Harry**

"You're right," I told Hermione in an undertone. "There is definitely something up with Jackson."

She looked eagerly at me. "Have you found anything out?"

Harry frowned. "I don't know. But I went down to the lake earlier, and Jackson was there. He swam up to the surface incredibly fast. Like, he was literally a blur. And I swear he was dry when he came out."

Hermione's jaw dropped. "Really? That's really, really interesting… it could be linked to the trident on his arm! I just need to find out how SPQR is related to the water!

Harry nodded as Hermione continued.

"I keep asking Ron to help, but he's so…"

Harry glanced across the common room to where Ron was playing wizard chess with Neville.

"Uninterested?"

Hermione nodded vigorously. Harry thought for a moment, "I think he's trying to make the most of these few days. You know, with Malfoy gone and all. Although he'll be back by tomorrow."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "I know! And then I'll have to start doing Head Boy and Girl stuff with him! It's so annoying!"

 **Will**

Will Solace was not having a good day.

If what Jason said was true, then Piper had been feeding Annabeth the drugs. Which meant that she should have woken up by now! Piper had been gone for over 24 hours. He groaned mentally, before turning to his half-sibling, Brent.

"She's really showing all signs of still being deep under it?"

Brent nodded. "I mean, we don't exactly know, as we've never had a case of this before, and our ancient records are _completely_ unreliable." He sighed. "Look, I know you're our best healer, but I really think it would be better if I wasn't here-"

"You want to work on your music," Will interrupted. "I get that. But the thing is, it's either being here or searching for Percy. I know which I prefer."

Brent rolled his eyes. "Fine! I'm going to the armoury. Maybe they won't find me there… I got caught at the beach the other day, and got taken to Ryan, because apparently being down there is now a sign of supporting Percy. Could have pointed out it might be a sign of Poseidon too…"

He stormed off, and Will was left staring at an immobile girl on a hospital bed.

 **Harry**

Harry left Hermione in the library once again and headed off the to Quidditch pitch.

There had been so much going on that he hadn't been able to hold trials up unitl now. He arrived to find Ginny already there, along with about a hundred Gryffindors. Harry groaned internally.

He decided to start the way he had two years ago- get them to fly around the pitch in groups of four.

He watched from the goalposts as the first group had a collision when an over-excited third year crashed into one of his friends. The second group turned out to be confused Hufflepuffs who had the wrong day. The third lot were fairly good, but couldn't stop yelling insults at each other. The fourth lot had flashy brooms, but weren't very good fliers…

As usual, the Chasers were picked first. Obviously, as Ginny was on the team, they only needed two. Demelza Robins returned to the team, along with fifth year Shane Woodley, who was a good flier despite a bad case of nervousness. Harry knew someone that could relate.

The beaters: Ritchie Coote and Jimmy Peakes both returned, Ritchie supporting an impressive scar from fights last year.

By the time it was the Keepers' turn, Harry watched Ron walk onto the pitch with a twinge of anxiety…

 **Sorry. A bit of a filler, but I hope you enjoyed it!**


	16. Chapter 16

**Hi! I am back with another chapter! Hope you enjoy! Sorry, no shout outs this time, but I'm a little pressed for time :(**

 **Also, we just need 2 more follows to reach 200! Keep going!**

 **Harry**

Ron was fiddling with the straps of his kit for what seemed like eternity. Eventually, though, he mounted his broom nervously and soared into the air.

The wind was blowing sharply, but Harry could still hear a faint song rising from the Gryffindor stands. _"Weasley is our king…"_

It was, however, the doctored version, not the one Malfoy had come up with.

Demelza, Ginny and Woodley flew towards the goal, passing the Quaffle to each other. Woodley flew within scoring distance, hefted the ball, and threw it hard, soaring straight towards the middle hoop.

Ron glanced up in terror and swerved to catch the ball, just holding on with his fingertips.

Harry let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding.

Shane passed to Demelza, who spun in the air and tossed it, with a slight spin, towards the left scoring post.

This one, Ron caught with less difficulty; a solid catch straight in his hands. He hurled it back to Ginny, who grabbed it from the air and barely gave her brother any time to adjust before chucking it at his chest.

Ron braked back hard and caught it seconds away from slamming into his ribcage.

To Harry's immense relief, Ron saved the next two penalties to achieve a score of 5, outdoing all the other competitors easily. Cormac McLaggen, Harry noted, was nowhere in sight, and neither was Hermione's wand. Funny… it was almost as if that unfortunate incident from last year was repeating itself…

Exhausted, Harry landed on the ground in the midst of his new team- Weasley, Weasley, Woodley, Robins, Coote and Peakes.

"Well done," he said. "You all flew really well today. Especially you, Peakes- I thought that Bludger was about to smash Shane's face in before you deflected it."

Harry might have praised Ron, but he knew that Ron tended to take any compliments as disguised pity.

Shaking his head, he led them back to the changing rooms.

\- _line break_ -

"I've found it, Harry!" Hermione sprinted down the steps towards him clutching a massive book titled, ' _Muggle Weapons and their Various Uses.'_

It took him a moment to understand. "You've… wait, the trident and SPQR! Great!"

Hermione nodded, dragging him into an empty classroom. "Well, of course the trident is connected with water."

Harry wasn't sure what was 'of course' about that, but he nodded anyway.

"I just couldn't think how that linked to SPQR! So I looked up 'trident' in the Roman section of this book… look what I found!"

Harry leaned over and read,

 _The trident. (_ tri'dent –noun)

 _A three-pronged spear used by the gladiators 'retiarii', alongside a weighted net. One of the most common techniques used was to flick the net around the opponent when they were off-balance and then spear them with the trident…"_

Harry tailed off. "What? You think Jackson's a gladiator?"

Hermione scowled. "No! Keep reading!"

"… _it is most commonly associated with the god of the sea, Neptune (see page 589 for more information), known otherwise as Poseidon in Greek. He controlled the Mediterranean Sea,_ **(A/N: don't get mad, but it's true. They only thought of him as controlling their seas, not those of barbarians, so technically he was the god of the Mediterranean.),** _all sea creatures, and was known as the Earthshaker and Stormbringer, with his violent temper. This is why tridents are nowadays associated with fishing…"_

Harry tailed off again. "Um. I see the connection, but… I still don't get why Jackson would have a Roman motto and the symbol of a Roman god on his arm. And what about those lines?"

"Well…" she thought. "I suppose, maybe, the lines could be Roman numerals. There were two scores, which looks like the symbol for 'two.' And who he is… I don't know."

Ron appeared out of nowhere. "Who, who is? Jackson? 'Mione, I reckon he's a loony. Go to be, hasn't he? All the weird things he's done… nothing to worry about."

Harry rolled his eyes, got up, and staggered off to his dormitory.

 **Piper**

If you were planning on taking a little trip on a flying horse off to who-knows-where, with no idea where you were, relying on the said horse, Piper had a tip: go to a mental hospital.

She hadn't had this much 'fun' since her trip to Quebec, when Khione had tried to freeze her, Zethes to kiss her and she had nearly died in an icy penthouse. Not her idea of an enjoyable vacation.

Just to pass the time, she got out her knife, Katoptris, and began polishing the metal with her parka, rubbing off all the fingermarks one-by-one.

She should have had enough bad experiences with it to know that that was a bad idea.

The blade began to glow faintly, emitting a silver light. Piper watched, half-afraid, as a voice echoed inside her head.

She flinched at the sound.

 _Piper. Piper, you must hear me. You shall go to England, and heal the world beyond Magic's control. But the child of the sea cannot survive without your guidance. Piper, you shall be crucial in his quest. The sleeping one must wake, and the impostor be revealed. I shall find my way in the end…_

The sound faded, and she was left alone, staring at the dagger in her hands.

 **Who is the mysterious voice? What do they mean? Review and tell me your ideas!**


	17. Chapter 17

**Hey! Another update!**

 **Shoutouts go to… (drum roll)**

 **Poseidon'sWizardingGuardian**

 **booklover2613**

 **MJ-booklover (you got loads of the message thing right :))**

 **writingmermaid**

 **TimeyWimeyBadWolf**

 **AnnaRooma**

 **AutumnLeaves03**

 **DamBluePancakes**

 **awesomesauce90 (that was officially my favourite review of the chapter)**

 **Princess Of Flames**

 **Loverickriordan (guest)**

 **PiperMclean360**

 **Cam9911**

 **To: Loverickriordan (guest) Malfoy was away because he was visiting family or some pureblood gathering thing… no idea. I'll think of something and put it in next chapter, probably, but it's not a major plot point :)**

 **Annabeth**

She was curled up in the darkness of her dream world, doing nothing.

Below her, a scene played itself out. A girl who looked strangely familiar, riding on the back of a pure black stallion through the sky. She clutched a small bronze dagger tightly in her hands, staring at it with wide eyes.

Annabeth frowned hazily. What was going on?

Then, the girl's head jerked up in shock, her brown, choppy hair whipping around her face as she stared into the air.

 **Will**

Will Solace was walking up to the infirmary again after a short break.

As he climbed up the steps of the Big House, he heard a small rustling, like someone was fishing in a box of leaves.

Confused, he stepped closer. The only ones usually allowed in the Big House were Chiron, the healers from the Apollo cabin, and people attending meetings. There should be no one inside this late.

Cautiously, he peered around the infirmary door and froze.

A figure was bending across the single occupied bed- the bed that Annabeth lay in. As Will watched, askance, they drew a bunch of herbs from their hoodie and took the glass of water that sat by Annabeth's bedside. Then, they dipped the herbs inside.

Immediately, they blackened and burnt, becoming the texture of charcoal. Will's world gave a lurch. This was _not_ what he thought it was… there was a perfectly reasonable explanation…

They pulled the herbs out of the water, tipping the remaining liquid into the sink and refilling it, before holding the herbs in front of Annabeth's nose. She inhaled as the fumes travelled straight into her nostrils.

The figure turned with a tauntingly recognisable posture Will strived to remember.

He stumbled over himself to get away, creeping down the corridor, his heart thumping in his chest.

And crashed into a table.

Time stood still as the eighteenth century vase wobbled and crashed to the ground.

The figure paused in the doorway, calling out suspiciously, "Who's there?"

Will panicked and ran backwards, finally spinning round as he skidded around a corner and sprinted outside the back door, running into the woods to a glade far away from the Big House, diving into the undergrowth and curling into a ball.

The sounds of his pursuer grew louder and louder, and Will was now positive he knew who it was- and what they had been doing. And that scared him to death, because nothing was certain anymore.

"I know you're here!"

 **Ryan**

He wasn't going to bother with subtlety.

It could only be Chiron, who wouldn't have run off, or a healer. And the only one still visiting Annabeth and not being loyal and helping with the search effort was Solace.

Ryan's blood pounded in his veins in exhilaration as he closed in- the wolf circling the prey.

He slashed through the trees indiscriminately, intent only on his goal. Oh, Ryan knew the rumours the naiads back home mongered. That he was driven mad with a lust for power. They weren't true. He was driven to power by a strange madness. And he didn't particularly care. He was going to destroy Percy Jackson and those that stood with him, because he had to be the strongest hero, and no one was going to oppose that. Especially not his older brother and his know-it-all ex-girlfriend.

"Solace!" screamed Ryan. "Come out and face me, you idiot!"

No sound. He growled and pulled out a set of small poisoned darts, flicking them in his hands. He took aim and hurled two in quick succession at a maple tree. Within seconds, the branches blackened and withered.

Having Godsbane in your possession was useful.

Ryan inspected the tip of his blade, Xiphos, before stabbing it into the ground in annoyance. Cracks of darkness spread from the blade.

The healer was still nowhere to be seen.

Ryan fumed silently, before a smile crept onto his lips. Annabeth had lived for entirely too long.

He smirked, capping the end of his sword to turn it to a pen, and began to write a note.

 **Will**

He waited until long after the footsteps died away to make a move.

Then, he crawled out of his hiding place. He was a healer, not a fighter. He spat on the ground in disgust, shaking at the thought of facing Ryan again, before he noticed the scrap of paper pinned to a tree with a tiny dart.

He walked over, grabbing the note, the corners of his mouth turning down in shock, annoyance and fear as he read it.

 _Solace._

 _I wasn't very happy with your actions today. You might have noticed. And I'd hate to have to report I walked in on you drugging Annabeth, your own patient, an hour ago. It would be so unfortunate if my father or Athena saw fit to punish you._

 _So, I can make sure that no one ever knows if you just do a few things for me._

 _First, don't you think it's unfortunate how Annabeth will never recover? It's so sad she won't require a healer anymore… especially as that healer is joining the search parties and will aid them in any way he can from now on, and follow the direct orders of his superiors._

 _Second, you don't think you'll be able to balance your duties with being head counsellor. So, like a responsible person, you're giving up your position to Brent Solar, your former second-in-command._

 _Third. It would be so distressing if some of Jackson's supporters crept into the infirmary and caused my Annabeth some fatal harm. Or, actually, supporter. Hint: he's reading this note._

 _From your concerned friend._

 **Damn, Ryan is really sick. I wasn't intending on that to happen, but… you know. R &R!**


	18. Chapter 18

**Hi! Sorry it's late!**

 **Nico**

Nico snatched up a mortal newspaper from a stand and pretended to be scanning it. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two figures approach closer and closer, looking oddly out of place in their green and silver robes, like some strange cross between bats and snakes.

Next to him, Hazel tapped him on the shoulder lightly, murmuring, "Mist."

Nico frowned. Right. He had forgotten about the handy fact Hazel was a boss sorceress.

Hazel muttered something under her breath, and Nico felt something float around him, like a piece of silk that had been tossed down from Olympus. When he looked down, he saw empty space. It was as if Nico di Angelo had never existed.

Then, a voice grumbled in his head, "Why can't you two be mortals, and then I can transform into your bulldog? With a spiky collar?"

Hazel's voice chimed in, "Frank. Look what they're wearing. I don't think they're mortals. Anyway, shh!"

Nico winced at the clamour of voices in his head, but it duly died away and he focused on the strange pair in the middle of the station.

"I still think Professor Jackson's really weird, and I'm the one who's been in the same school as him for almost a fortnight."

The woman looked around nervously, her imperious features almost sagging under the glow of bright daylight. "Draco, are you suggesting he works for the Dar-"

"Voldy Mort?"

Or at least, that was what it sounded like.

The woman whispered harshly, "Do not say that name!" 

"Why?" the boy replied. "He's gone. There's no point being scared anymore."

His mother drew her cloak tightly about her. They were approaching the barrier between platforms 9 and 10 now. Nico was having to move fast to keep up, and although he couldn't see them, he had a suspicion the others were falling behind. Nico dodged a man carrying a stack of pamphlets and shadow-travelled a little further ahead.

The guy continued, "Just because we've spent the weekend with a bunch of the old pureblood relatives doesn't mean you need to get so paranoid again. He's-"

But Nico did not hear anything else, because they had disappeared in front of the barrier. He looked around wildly. Nothing.

The Mist melted away, and Hazel whispered, "Who were they?"

Frank looked confused. "I don't know. Who were they talking about… Voldy Warts?"

Hazel looked thoughtful. "I think it was French. You know, like _vol de mort._ Flight of death. But they said it like a person…"

Nico frowned. "They mentioned 'Professor Jackson', too. I doubt Percy would be teaching."

"It's the only lead we've got…"

 **Will**

Will was disgusted. No, really.

Ryan must be stupider than Will gave him credit for if he thought Will would take that hands down.

Unfortunately, the former also applied to Chiron.

The son of Apollo had taken the note pretty much straightaway to the old centaur, but it was like he was drugged too. He refused to believe the note was genuine, and Will had to admit it would hard to prove owing to two facts: it was not signed, and Ryan had written in block capitals.

He would comply with the second request happily enough. The counsellor ship was a small thing to sacrifice, and Brent was a good guy.

To be honest, he wasn't sure what to do about the other demands. He was not going to kill Annabeth.

He didn't have to keep healing her, as he knew what was going on, and there wasn't any cure except for discontinuing the drugs.

Although, he could do something else…

If Ryan was too busy to drug her, then she wouldn't be under it's influence any more.

If she woke up… _if she woke up…_

The next morning, three things happened.

The first was Will Solace giving up command of the Apollo cabin to Brent Solar.

The second was the beach and canoe lake being cut off and banned, as they were associated with Jackson.

The third was a secret meeting, held in a glade a little way away from Bunker 9, hosted by Will Solace.

 **Draco**

Draco Malfoy was not a Monday person.

After spending a hideous weekend with the extended family (of course, pureblood relatives only) he was not pleased to be back at school.

He did get to do some stuff with Hermione Granger now, which he was actually pleased about. Even if she hated him.

But, in Slytherin, things were different.

There were rumours flying around- he'd seen Vincent Crabbe die. Some thought he'd murdered him. Other extreme Gryffindor haters were under the impression he'd betrayed the Death Eaters to help Harry Potter, and he'd killed his best friend so Potter could survive. _For the Greater Good_ and all that.

Even some lifelong friends now hated him. Pansy Parkinson was hanging onto Zabini's every word instead of Draco's. Talking of Zabini, he had collected Goyle into his gang as well, and Draco was pretty much excluded. Yep, for the first time in his life, he wasn't popular. And he didn't like it at all.

Draco walked through the main doors into the Great Hall, taking the turning that would bring him to Slytherin Tower. Then, he paused. All that was waiting for him up there would be more snide comments, more sideways looks.

It didn't help that it was common knowledge he had been a Death Eater at sixteen and had played a part in Dumbledore's death.

He shook his head slowly, and instead walked back the way he'd come, entering the library. His feet took him through the towering shelves, towards the area near the Restricted Section where no one ever really went.

He sat down tiredly, for once not bothering to straighten his robes, and was falling asleep when a familiar looking girl walked around the corner and stiffened at the sight of him, brown hair puffing out around her head in annoyance. She brushed a stray curl behind her ear, sniffed, and walked off.

Draco winced.

What _was_ it with Hermione Granger?

 **Aww… a little Dramione. Maybe. If you ship them hard, review and tell me! I love feedback! You will get more moments! They might end up together! If you hate it, tell me and stop that happening! Review! :) Cookies for those who do! [Sorry I can't use blue food dye on here :'( ]**


	19. Chapter 19

**Hey! First off, I owe you a massive apology. I was going to mention the fact I would be away with no chance to write for a week, but I completely forgot I hadn't. So no. Not abandoning this. However, in about a week I will going away again for quite a while. Like, a month a while. I will be able to update, but probably only about twice a week.**

 **To: MM S'mores (guest): thank you so much for reviewing! Usually, every day, although don't be surprised if I skip out a couple. I have on and off moments.**

 **To: Loverickriordan (guest): not abandoning! Sorry. I would have PM-ed you, but obviously that's only a member's thing. Thanks for reviewing AGAIN. I love it when I get reviews… any reviews!**

 **So far, the Dramione thing is looking like they will just be friends, but the ship option is still there! I think it would be a bit weird if I stopped the whole thing at this stage, but if I got, like fifty reviews right now saying I HATE DRAMIONE or something, then yeah, I wouldn't do it.**

 **Last thing: PLEASE vote on my poll! (Which one of these PJO characters is you fave) It would mean, like, TEN REVIEWS TO ME IF SOMEONE DID!**

 **Harry**

Finally, the morning of the first Quidditch match dawned- Ravenclaw vs. Gryffindor. The Ravenclaw Captain was a tall seventh year Harry disliked named Alexius Marsch. However, despite his misgivings, Harry knew that Marsch was a brilliant player and would not have been careless with his team selections. And, this early on, that was more what it was about than whether the players could read each other's minds or not.

As a consequence of the match, Harry woke early. In the next bed, Seamus was still snoring away, vaguely muttering something about flying Pygmy Puffs. He grunted and rolled over, his feet hanging in the air.

All the others appeared to be asleep. Harry quietly got up, his sheets draped over his shoulders before he shrugged them off. They fell noiselessly back onto the bed as he padded over to the window and pulled aside the curtain a fraction.

Outside, orange rays of sun were just beginning to streak across the sky. He couldn't quite see, but it looked to be windy.

Harry gave one last glance at the others, then brought out his wand and whispered ' _muffliato'_ and performed a non-verbal spell in his head so no one would feel the cold air and wake up.

He pushed the stiff window open with a violent shove, and leaned out.

He had been right about the weather; the trees were waving in the breeze, but he could tell it would be a relatively warm day, and there didn't appear to be any sign of rain.

Reluctantly, he made to move back inside, but something stopped him. He leant out even further, and twisted his neck in an attempt to see around the tower to the window of the seventh year girls' dormitory, where Ginny would be sleeping.

There was no sign of movement from inside, and Harry withdrew, disappointed, removing the charms and closing the shutters to sit back on his bed.

He stayed in that same position until morning, contemplating strategies for the match.

- _line break-_

Several hours later, Harry was heading out onto the Quidditch pitch in his robes, blinking in the harsh sunlight.

His team crowded in for advice. He glanced at Ginny, as she was usually the one to give pep talks, but she shrugged slowly, looking at him as if to say, _nothing doing._

He sighed, and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Okay, so… the sun's bright. Try to fly on that side of the pitch in general, so they'll have to look at it if they want the Quaffle. We have a good team… those who've done this before, do it again. If you're new… do what we practised. You'll be great. The whole time I've been on this team, we've only lost twice, and I joined in first year."

Most of the team looked okay with that. Harry's gaze strayed to Ron. In the past, he had suffered a lot from confidence problems, but today he looked fine. He met Harry's gaze steadily, not showing any fear.

If Ron was scared, his acting skills had improved about 200% since yesterday, which seemed unlikely.

The Gryffindors walked onto the pitch in normal formation- Captains first, Beaters last- which meant Ginny went with the rest of the Chasers, and Harry, as the lone Seeker, assumed the official role of Captain.

The stands emblazoned in red and gold gave a thunderous round of applause as their representatives appeared, drowning out the Slytherin jeers. Harry could see Hermione sitting with Seamus, Dean, Neville and Parvati, near the front.

Harry was surprised to see a new commentator standing with McGonagall on the podium. A distinctly strange candidate for commentator, in fact. Not to mention unwelcome.

Draco Malfoy.

 **Draco**

Draco noticed the annoyed glances thrown his way from… pretty much everyone, in fact. The Gryffindors because they all hated him. The Slytherins because they all either thought he was a coward and a traitor or a murderer and a traitor. And, the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws because Draco Alfonso **(yep, that is now Draco's middle name)** Malfoy, nephew of Voldemort's notorious right-hand woman- now dead- and son of two more ex-Death Eaters, had sneered at or bullied a few too many of them. Not to mention he'd been part of the group that had probably killed some of their families.

He swallowed back his embarrassment and spoke into the microphone, "Welcome to the first Quidditch match of the season, Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor. The lions are going to be a hard team to beat this year, put together by Weasley and Potter…" he faltered slightly when he finally caught sight of Hermione Granger in the Gryffindor stands, glaring at him with such pointed dislike that he wouldn't be surprised if she pulled out her wand and tried to hex him right now.

"…but Marsch has put together some strong opposition…"

Draco was relieved he didn't have to say anything while the Captains shook hands and the players mounted their brooms. He caught a sight of a flash of gold on Harry's Firebolt and felt a momentary twinge of annoyance. What, now? Was he jealous of him?

Honest answer: yes. Not least because he was such good friends with Hermione… And because he was actually well-liked and friendly, something that, however hard he tried, Draco just couldn't seem to be.

He blinked. "And the teams take off… Weasley in possession of the Quaffle… she passes to Robins… Woodley dodges a Bludger and catches it from her… Peakes hits that Bludger straight towards Marsch… and it hits his broom! No serious damage… just a bit off course…"

Draco inwardly rolled his eyes at the upbeat nonsense spouting from his lips. Why was he doing this again? Actually, he had no idea… Jackson had mentioned it to him, but he hadn't actually considered doing it until he saw Hermione, Harry and Ron walking past him, arms linked. She was laughing at something… and he'd just wanted to do something they couldn't do?

Why, why did he want to know Hermione Granger so badly?

Draco continued commentating the rest of the match with a shake of his head.

 ***That's a cut!* And, once again, PLEASE CHECK OUT MY POLL!**


	20. Chapter 20

**So… CHAPTER MYSTERY!**

 **What nationality is Cho Chang? Most people think she is Chinese, but her name annoyingly does not fit perfectly with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese or Taiwanese. Or… following the author's secret hint… it also seems unlikely she is Scottish. If you want to look it up, Google 'telegraph richard spencer harry potter and the cho chang mystery'**

 **It's actually kinda interesting…**

 **Other: POLL**

 **I was really happy with the amount of people that voted in my poll: who is your favourite PJO/HOO character? PLEASE KEEP IT UP!**

 **Current results:**

 **Percy – 12**

 **Leo – 10**

 **Nico – 9**

 **Thalia – 8**

 **Reyna – 3**

 **Annabeth, Hazel and Calypso – 2**

 **Jason, Piper and Frank - 1**

 **Harry**

Harry flew away from the game, high above the pitch, circling in search of the tell tale glimpse of gold.

Below him, he distantly heard that all-too-familiar voice continue, "Kelsey of Ravenclaw flying towards the goal… Gryffindor Keeper Ron Weasley prepares to block as Robins tries and fails to intercept the Quaffle…Kelsey takes aim and throws right… no, she feinting… Weasley just blocks it with the tips of his fingers. Score: Gryffindor 60, Ravenclaw 50, but it's still open…"

Harry snorted in disgust and focused on the game. Strangely, he knew the Ravenclaw Seeker- Ai Chang happened to be his ex-girlfriend Cho's sister.

Even though she was only a third year, she had clearly inherited her sister's skill, and Harry knew it would be tough to beat her. He did have the advantage of a Firebolt, however. She rode a Nimbus 2001, and although it was an excellent broom, it wasn't in the same league.

Harry was flying towards the Ravenclaw goalhoops when something caught his eye. He turned just in time to catch a sight of something gold flashing by the commentator's stand.

Whirling round, he hurtled through the air towards the elusive Snitch. A few first years screamed as he zoomed straight towards Draco Malfoy.

As if on cue, Ai Chang came zooming in from the other direction, just as intent on the tiny golden ball as he was. The Snitch flew around Draco's head. Harry made a wild grab and missed it by inches, before it sped off back to the pitch, dodging Ritchie and a burly Ravenclaw Chaser, heading off towards the Gryffindor goal.

Ai and Harry followed straight after it.

As good as he was, she was nearly as fast and Harry couldn't gain any ground. Peakes saw his predicament and hit a Bludger at her head, but it veered in midair and decided to go for Ginny instead.

Harry leaned over his broom, internally screaming for it to go faster. The Snitch was flying straight at Ron – Harry was gaining, he was sure he was – he swooped under a Marsch's outstretched arm, barely missing the Quaffle, but the Ravenclaw Captain had moved aside for Ai and they were neck and neck…

Ron flailed around wildly; trying to get out of their path… he slipped off his broom, hanging on for dear life as the hem of Harry's robes just whipped across his hand.

The Snitch soared straight through the middle goalpost, and Harry followed, just edging past Ai and snatching it from the air.

The sound of applause from the stands almost deafened him as he sank through the air, completely exhausted.

 **Percy's POV**

After the Quidditch match- which left me feeling kind of sick from all the flying- I headed into the library to find a student.

Hermione Granger was standing near the back of a small section entitled, "Muggle History", poring over something labelled, " _A tsihRyo of cAtnhiEn glemmsu,"_

After staring at it for a few seconds, my dyslexic eyes finally made out, " _A History of Ancient Muggles."_

I had a feeling she wasn't reading it for Muggle Studies homework.

Clearing my throat, I stepped forward awkwardly. "Hermione."

She jumped. "W- oh. Professor Jackson."

"You're trying to find out who I am," I stated.

She looked shocked. "Er…"

I sighed. "No, I understand. Nothing about me makes sense to you. Or anyone, really… And I admire your diligence, so I'm going to say… stop looking."

She gaped. "What?"

I considered how to phrase things. "I was… well known where I came from. I got betrayed, and I'm trying to forget things. I came here for a new start. But also… don't go digging up things about my old life. It won't bring anything good. It's just a lot of pain, and I found that out the hard way."

Unfortunately, she still didn't look satisfied. "What about that symbol on your arm? It's not a normal tattoo. It was burnt there. And it's got something to do with the sea, ad Ancient Rome."

I gave a wry smile. "A bright girl like you, haven't you figured it out?"

She scowled. "Stop talking like I'm six. You're probably only nineteen."

"In years maybe. But you have to stop looking."

I turned before memories could engulf me, and headed back to my room.

 **Harry**

"And then he just left?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes. I don't know about you, but I'm not stopping looking."

Harry shifted uneasily. "Hermione, I don't know… I mean, I get why you want to know, but… It's his private life. If he doesn't want you to know, and he's made it quite clear he doesn't-"

"He hasn't told us not to," she pointed out. "Just said I shouldn't. And when have you cared about the rules?"

"I haven't. But you have."

She sighed. "Harry, I'm god- _damned-_ eighteen. I can look after myself! And there's something going on here! He could be evil!"

She threw her book down and stormed back to the girl's dormitories.


	21. Chapter 21

**The Cho Chang mystery remains unresolved. On a different note, thank you SO MUCH to everyone who took the time to vote on my poll: Which PJO/HOO character is your favourite? YOU CAN STILL VOTE! If you are undecided, the poll lets you vote for multiple options (up to four).**

 **Results so far:**

 **Percy – 16**

 **Leo – 15**

 **Nico – 13**

 **Thalia – 8**

 **Reyna – 4**

 **Annabeth – 3**

 **Hazel – 3**

 **Calypso – 3**

 **Jason – 2**

 **Frank – 2**

 **Piper – 1**

 **Unsurprised by the first two :D Leading, Persassy and Leo McShizzle… I find it a little strange that Piper is last. I usually don't like her because she doesn't think Percy is impressive and she thinks Jason is more powerful (totally untrue in my opinion). I would have thought she would have, like, 3 votes, however…**

 **The others I get, although Calypso appears to be more popular than I gave her credit for. I guess it has something to do with her taste… (cough, Team Leo). Nico has also got more support than I would have guessed (I would probably have placed him there in the rankings as a prediction, but I am surprised he is so close to the top two.**

 **Anyway… you're probably all getting really bored of this A/N, so I have just one more thing to say: THIS STORY HAS ALMOST 280 FOLLOWERS! I know that won't seem like much to some people, but it does to me, so THANK YOU SO MUCH TO EVERYONE WHO HAS FOLLOWED IT!**

 **Right. Story.**

 **Draco**

Draco Alfonso Malfoy **(Cue rolling eyes at his made up middle name. I just found out it is actually Lucius. Oh, well.)** was feeling nervous.

He was not easily frightened. He could recall all the times he'd actually been scared: in the Forbidden Forest, when he was eleven, almost alone, at night, completely lost and facing a man drinking blood from the carcass of a dead unicorn to bring Voldemort back, who, by the way, actually had Voldemort sticking out the back of his head. In third year, when several Dementors had come searching the school train for an insane mass-murderer. And several times during sixth and seventh years, during his unwanted time as a Death Eater and Voldemort's second rise to powers.

But, apart from that? Not really. Even Moody had turned him to a ferret and bounced him on his head (most painful and embarrassing memory of his life) he hadn't been scared.

But now, considering the fact that in a few hours he would be in a private meeting with McGonagall, whose least favourite student he was, and Hermione Granger, who loathed him… with good reason.

And, the worst part of it- now, when he wanted to be friends, she _still_ hated him…

He looked up with a start as someone sat on the plush green sofa beside him.

Why the heck would someone sit with him? Everyone had been avoiding him lately like he had the plague.

Draco looked up to see a strangely familiar looking girl drop her bag on the ground with a thud that resonated over the Slytherin common room.

He waited, ten seconds, for the usual eventual realisation that he was there, the small exclamation, the hurry to pack up and move away.

Nothing happened.

He cleared his throat, wondering if she hadn't noticed him.

She looked up without the slightest sign of shock and said, "Oh, hey. Draco, right?"

He blinked. "Er… yes."

Now he was facing her, she looked even more familiar, but he couldn't think where he'd seen her before. His mind was full of, _she noticed me. She doesn't think I'm a freak or a murderer. She sat here because she wanted to…_

Across the room, Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott- Draco's onetime friends- were beginning to whisper, as the girl continued, "Daphne's mentioned you. I'm Astoria Greengrass? Her sister? I'm a year younger than you, I think…"

Draco blinked again. _Daphne Greengrass's younger sister? Even with Daphne around badmouthing him, she didn't hate him?_

He sighed. "Yeah. I'm not exactly popular around here…"

She laughed. "I'd noticed. It's stupid. I used to see you around in the summer with Daphne and Pansy. You were good friends with Crabbe and Goyle, even if I never got it. You wouldn't murder him."

He looked up hopefully. "You believe that?"

She rolled her eyes. "Don't be dumb. And as for the Death Eater thing… so what? People change. You were under pressure, anyway. I don't think there's anyone here you wouldn't have gone with Voldemort is he threatened them."

Draco's jaw dropped. She said his name?

He forced a laugh. "Are you a Slytherin or aren't you?"

She smiled. "Well, you know… I was almost put in Hufflepuff."

He frowned. "Hufflepuff or Gryffindor… odd combination."

She shrugged. "I should have been Hufflepuff. My family all told me I'd better be in Slytherin… I guess I just accepted it had to be the best house. So, I asked the Sorting Hat to put me in Slytherin."

Draco sighed. "I'm definitely Slytherin. The Hat practically screamed it as son as it touched my hair."

Astoria considered. "You don't seem that bad…" she glanced across the room and met Daphne's stone cold glare. "Um, better go see my sister."

Draco nodded. "Um, Astoria?"

She turned. "Mmm?"

"Er… Thanks."

She nodded, smiling, and went.

 **A lot more Draco in this story than I intended. In fact, he wasn't going to be in it… oh, well. I've decided against Dramione, although they will be friends, but I think you can see who Draco is going to be paired with… it's more canon anyway, as he actually did marry her.**

 **Tell me if you like or hate Astoria. She's not an OC, but… she was never really mentioned, so I'm giving her a personality I thought of. If you have any ideas, tell me :)**

 **Thanks for reading this far. Please vote and review! THE 300** **TH** **REVIEWER GETS A SHOUTOUT!**

 **Kind of a short chapter there… sorry about that.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Thank you so much for all the reviews I this story received! We are on 294… don't forget the 300** **th** **gets a shoutout! (If it is a guest, the next member will as well).**

 **Also, you guys were amazing with the poll. Current results stand at:**

 **Percy – 21**

 **Leo – 18**

 **Nico – 16**

 **Thalia – 10**

 **Reyna – 7**

 **Annabeth – 6**

 **Jason – 3**

 **Frank – 3**

 **Hazel – 3**

 **Calypso – 3**

 **Piper – 2**

 **The top positions are still standing, but Annabeth is almost equal to Reyna now and Nico is catching up with Leo… Jason, Frank, Hazel, Calypso and Piper are still at the back. If you support them, vote!**

 **I love everyone who votes and I wish there was a way to tell who has so I could give them a shoutout. But, you know who you are and I send virtual cookies to all of you :) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::) (::)**

 **Okay, maybe that was a little overboard?**

 **On with the story. ( I am pleased to say that the majority of people liked Astoria. I didn't know whether you would.)**

 **To: MM S'mores (guest): I would say go for it! It's not normally done, but it's your story. As long as you still have main characters in it that are also likeable after the death, it's great. (how many books were you planning on?)**

 **Piper**

Piper really, really hoped the pegasus knew where they were.

They had landed at long last in the middle of a city where it appeared to be raining.

After asking around and getting a lot of weird looks, it hadn't taken Piper very long to figure this was London.

At least the Mist was disguising Blackjack. Piper wasn't sure what she would have done if the mortals started freaking out over a giant winged horse stomping around asking (according to Percy) for donuts.

Yawning, she turned around and found herself outside King's Cross Station. She sighed and began to walk away- until Blackjack neighed loudly, looking impatiently towards the entrance.

She frowned. "Uh… Percy's not gonna be in there."

Piper could have sworn he rolled his eyes at her.

She sighed. "Okay. We may as well."

She took a final glance around, making note of the place in case she got lost.

A pretty ordinary city street, to be honest. A flashing billboard depicted- to her utter annoyance- a picture of _King of Sparta._ In fact, it was the same picture she'd first spotted inside the Aphrodite cabin all that time ago – i.e., a disgusting picture of her dad flashing a brilliant smile, clad in an artistically torn shirt and 'ancient' armour.

The daughter of Aphrodite spun on her heel and walked into the station.

- _line break_ -

Piper did _not_ expect what happened next.

She wandered over to a bench and sat down, but her head felt weird. Fuzzy. Almost like… someone was trying to use the Mist against her.

Immediately she stood up, and said in her strongest charmspeak, "You don't really want to hide from me. Why don't you show yourself and then we can talk?"

Nothing happened. Frustrated and more than a little nervous, she backed up against Blackjack's reassuring bulk and tried again.

This time, she heard a snap, and three figures shimmered into existence.

Piper blinked. She blinked again. She closed her eyes, counted to ten, and looked again. They were still there.

"Oh my gods! Piper!"

Definitely Hazel's voice. Was this a trap? Piper gripped her dagger and said, "Who are you?"

Possibly-Hazel blinked. "Um, Hazel. Remember me?"

Possibly-Nico rolled his eyes. "Piper, it's us. If you don't believe me, this is the guy who turned into an iguana to escape Chinese handcuffs." He gestured to Possibly-Frank.

Piper's jaw dropped. "What-how-?"

Laughing and crying at the same time, she ran forward and hugged Hazel so hard she was surprised she didn't pass out.

 **Harry**

The whole of Gryffindor Tower stayed up late the night of the Quidditch match.

Harry hung around in the common room for a few hours, until he was finally able to escape out of the portrait hole.

He walked into an empty classroom and was not surprised to find Ginny waiting for him, sitting on a desk swinging her legs.

Walking over to her and slumping down beside her, they sat there for a moment in companionable silence.

Ginny murmured, "Why do you have a Snitch doodled on your cheek in bright green ink?"

Harry looked confused. "Er… I don't know. Probably Romilda Vane?"

Ginny laughed. "She is literally the most insufferable person I know. Although, she has taste… you should get that tattooed there. Go really well with your Hippogriff one on your chest."

He smirked. "Haha, very funny. That tattoo made of invisible ink and your imagination."

She nodded, mock thoughtfully. "At least it's not a Pygmy Puff."

Harry grinned. "I am never going to let Ron live that down."

He thought for a moment, then asked more seriously, "You know Professor Jackson?"

Ginny nodded again. "Obviously."

"Hermione's coming up with all these weird theories. Like, have you heard he's got a tattoo on his arm?"

"Yeah. And Hermione thinks it's got something to do with Rome or whatever. Although, I actually think she might have a point there."

Harry's ears perked up. "Wait… what?"

Ginny nodded. "It might make some sense. There just could be something we don't know about. Like, Muggles don't know about us. There could be another world. We were in DADA, and Jackson mentioned Muggles. Except he called them mortals. I mean, you could assume that's just what Americans call them or something, but he said it like he meant them and us. As if he was completely different from both races."

Harry considered. Truthfully, he'd never even thought of that before. "I guess that would make sense. But we would have heard of them, right?"

Ginny shook her head no. "That's the thing. We go around assuming we're the most powerful race on the planet, but so do Muggles. We're hidden from them. What is this other group is hidden with something more powerful than magic."

Harry laughed. "You're making them sound like gods or something."

Ginny's eyes blazed. "They could be."

Harry nodded, but he didn't really think about it any more as he bent his head to kiss her.

 **A/N: sorry, I know Harry was kinda OOC in that. But I had to have it like that…**

 **Also, short chapter. Sorry again. Oh, well…**

 **I wrote this yesterday, but FF crashed and I couldn't post it :( Meanwhile, please vote and review! The 300** **th** **reviewer could be you… (cheesy, much).**

 **On another topic, does anyone have any good songs for me to listen to? Stuff I already like: Fall Out Boy, 5 Seconds of Summer, Green Day…**


	23. Chapter 23

**Hello! Long update today, as I actually wrote part of it yesterday but got distracted and lost inspiration.**

 **Sooo… The 300** **th** **reviewer is… (cue drumroll please)**

 **jenniferrocks07** **!**

 **Thank you so much! You are a pretty consistent reviewer, and you always have great suggestions! I hope you will continue to post comments!**

 **PiperMclean360** **came very close, with the 301** **st** **review! Thank to another of my lovely reviewers!**

 **THERE WILL ALSO BE A SHOUTOUT FOR THE 350** **TH** **REVIEWER FOR THOSE WHO MISSED OUT! KEEP PRESSING THAT LOVELY COMMENT BUTTON!**

 **Poll results so far:**

 **Percy – 26**

 **Leo – 22**

 **Nico – 21**

 **Thalia – 13**

 **Annabeth – 9**

 **Reyna – 9**

 **Frank – 4**

 **Hazel – 4**

 **Calypso – 3**

 **Piper – 3**

 **Jason –3**

 **Excitemondo! Annabeth and Reyna are equal! If you dislike this fact, or just wanna put your opinion in, PLEASE KEEP VOTING!**

 **Btw, before we start (sorry), I have a few recommendations.**

 **The Green Games by Frostfoot-Dreamleaf (Hunger Games and Harry Potter crossover, but you don't need to read THG. It has no THG characters in. Just the Games idea. In progress.)**

 **The Green Girl by Colubrina (Harry Potter. I know the title sounds similar. Story completely different, best HP fic ever. Complete.)**

 **Dumbledore's Army and the Year of Darkness by Thanfiction (basically what happens to Neville and the DA in seventh year. Dark, angst, canon and generally amazing. Complete.)**

 **Altered Destinies by Anaklusmos14 (Perzoë. PJO. Actually, read all of this author's stuff. Best Perzoë writer ever. Complete.)**

 **If you have any recommendations you want me to put on here, or want to promote your own story, I will as long as you also review :)**

 **Right. This is a story.**

 **Piper**

"Piper! How-what- are you looking for Percy with the camp?" Hazel's golden eyes instantly became more hostile.

Piper held up her hands. "No way! Look, I was an idiot for believing them. I found out Annabeth was cheating on Percy before she got a coma and Jason had known and not told Percy. And Jason was being a jerk to me, so I broke up with him…" her voice faltered. "Uh, I broke up with him, hijacked Blackjack and ran away from camp. He flew straight here, so I figured Percy might be around here? Maybe he was looking for you guys instead."

Frank laughed. "Well, maybe both. We're looking for Percy."

Nico nodded. "You won't believe what we saw…"

Hazel rolled her eyes. "Yeah. These people were even weirder than us. But let's find something to eat. I sold some un-cursed jewels and got a load of mortal cash…"

Piper grinned. "Don't waste good money. You've got me now… charmspeaker supreme? Or get Nico to shadow-travel into a food place and steal some. Or Frank could get in as an animal and take it."

Nico grinned. "I like the way this girl thinks."

 **Draco**

The day after Draco met Astoria Greengrass, he had double DADA with the Gryffindors- and Hufflepuffs who weren't at career advice with Sprout.

As no one in Slytherin would sit with him for fear of catching rabies, Draco was reduced to standing around looking like and idiot on his own.

He watched as the Gryffindors trooped in. Seamus paired with Dean, Parvati and a badly scarred Lavender together as usual, Ron with Harry and Neville with Hannah Abbott.

Draco's heart pounded as he realised the only other person left was Hermione.

Unhappily, she looked at him scathingly and reluctantly walked over to the last desk with him.

A minute later, Jackson entered, going straight to his desk and sitting down.

"Today, we're going to learn another spell. I understand your last…um, three years, where you would have learnt most curses and hexes, have been considerably doubtful. I have decided to properly teach you the Patronus charm."

Draco frowned. Great. Another chance for Harry to upstage him- he knew for a fact that he'd been able to do the spell in third year.

"Can anyone tell me what this charm is used for?"

Hermione's hand shot straight up, and Draco gave her a half-amused, half-exasperated smirk. "It's the most effective and only standard spell for repelling Dementors."

Jackson nodded. He raised his wand and called, " _Expecto patronum_!"

Something giant and silvery erupted form his wand. Something long, streamlined and distinctly joyful. A dolphin.

Draco's eyebrows went up, and he wasn't the only one. The professor did not exactly seem to have a disposition similar to that of a dolphin.

"I believe you all know the incantation," Jackson said, "So let's get started!"

As always, Draco thought, he looked particularly relieved to stop speaking.

- _line break-_

Partnering an unwilling Hermione Granger was not all sunshine and rainbows.

She flicked her wand, saying, " _Expecto patronum!"_

Unusually, nothing happened. Draco wondered if she just couldn't summon a happy memory with him right next to her. Then he wished he hadn't.

She tried again, and this time a silver otter sprang out of her wand.

Draco watched it, strangely struck by the grace of the lithe and sinuous body. It faded away at the door, and he didn't realise he'd frozen until Hermione tapped him in annoyance with her wand. "It's your go."

He didn't flinch at her stern expression – although it took some effort – and took out his own wand.

All around him, people were looking nearly constipated as they said the spell and nothing happened. The only ones, in fact, who seemed to be able to do it at all, were about half of the Gryffindors and a few Hufflepuffs. Draco wracked his brains for a reason why. What the heck?

Then, he realised that nearly all of them were likely members of the defence group Harry Potter had led in fifth year… two years after he'd successfully mastered the charm.

Draco had to be able to do this.

Thinking as hard as he could about the day he was picked for the Slytherin Quidditch team, he raised the wand and said forcefully, " _Expecto patronum!"_

He blinked as a huge cloud of silvery mist streamed from the end of his wand. Hermione, who'd been watching him quite disinterestedly, had a slack jaw. "That…"

 _Was almost there first try,_ Draco thought with a feeling of shock.

"Wasn't so bad," Hermione said in annoyance.

Draco grinned inwardly, and raised his wand again. Thinking about that exact moment, he called, " _Expecto patronum!"_

A giant creature erupted out of the end of his wand. He looked at it in shock. The huge animal turned its head towards him and rubbed itself around his hand, purring affectionately.

Draco blinked. What the heck… miracles did happen. He had summoned a fully corporeal Patronus on his first try. And it was a snow leopard, no less.

He grinned for real, enjoying the looks on his classmates' face… especially Hermione's half-outraged, half-impressed grimace.

And Ron and Harry's dumbstruck expressions.

He began to laugh in earnest, and gradually people joined in for no reason at all.

Yep, his life was pretty okay.

 **So… someone said that it was unrealistic for Harry and Ginny to hit so close to the truth, like, oh, maybe they're gods. Well… that comment was sarcastic and ironic. They don't actually think that. But I figured it was possibly reasonable for them to think that they're possibly more powerful, as the only comparison they would have would be the muggle-wizard situation.**

 **Also, it's not going to be that easy to discover about Percy. Ginny has no idea he's a demigod, and she's certainly not finding out anytime soon…**


	24. Chapter 24

**Heya! Sooo… advance warning. In two days, I'm going abroad for about five weeks. I will still update, but possibly only twice a week or something. By the way, to the guest that didn't know, AU stands for alternate universe.**

 **Anyway… Poll. The results are now:**

 **Percy – 29**

 **Nico – 23**

 **Leo – 22**

 **Thalia – 14**

 **Annabeth – 10**

 **Reyna – 9**

 **Hazel – 5**

 **Jason – 4**

 **Frank – 4**

 **Calypso – 3**

 **Piper – 3**

 **Some changes! Nico is now beating Leo, and Annabeth has got past Reyna. Hazel has come out of the unpopular crowd. Keep voting! The poll is still open!**

 **(A lot of people were asking whether it was a poll via review or an actual poll. There is an actual poll on my profile. I do appreciate guests can't vote on it.)**

 **Annabeth: Get on with the story! I want to wake up and murder Ryan SOMETIME soon.**

 **Me: Uh… Okay! (runs away looking slightly scared. Fine, very.)**

 **Percy: thaliatheawesome does NOT own Percy Jackson and the Olympians!**

 **Harry: What about my series? Harry Potter?**

 **Percy: Fine, that too.**

 **Jason: And the Heroes of Olympus.**

 **Percy: Why?**

 **Jason: Because Piper, Leo, Hazel, Frank, Reyna and I weren't in your series!**

 **Percy: That's cause Rick prefers the great Persassy. Anyway! Get on with the story! I want more badass me! And what about camp?**

 **Me: Okay, okay! Getting there!**

 **Draco**

Jackson stopped him after class. Draco looked up from packing his stuff away, a little confused. What did the DADA professor want?

"You can summon a corporeal Patronus," Jackson stated bluntly.

The sole heir to the great Malfoy fortune and manor visibly relaxed. "Oh. Yeah. But so can you."

Jackson looked slightly uncomfortable. "Er… I guess. But, anyway, was that the first time you've done it? Even attempted the spell?"

Draco nodded. "Yes."

Jackson nodded. "I see. You have a rare amount of skill, Draco. Not to mention charisma. You'll go far."

 **(A/N: I realise Percy just echoed Slughorn's words. No, he is not turning into a backseat, favouring professor. He's just curious.)**

Draco wasn't really sure how to respond. Yep, a few years ago he would have stuck out his chest and swaggered away. But, since he'd taken the Mark and seen his best friend die in an inferno, falling to his death into the flames, he'd grown up.

He bit his lip and gave a half nod, half smile, before, grabbing his bag and walking out of the classroom for a free period. Maybe he'd go to the library… maybe Astoria would be there…

 **Jason**

Jason was in the arena, sparring viciously with Clarisse.

Ever since the McLean girl had deserted him and been pronounced a traitor, Jason had spent more time fighting. He found it helped him blow off steam in a way nothing else did- letting the anger out on his opponent.

As he desperately hacked away with his sword, more wildly than using skill, he glanced at Clarisse's face. He'd never really known her well. She'd been on better terms with Jackson than him.

This girl picked interesting friends, didn't she? Jackson… that Beauregard girl…

As he thought of her, Piper's face swam before his eyes. For a moment, his anger faltered and he stared, in a split-second trance, at Clarisse's flashing spear.

And it knocked aside his sword harmlessly and came to rest above his heart.

"Dead," Clarisse pronounced savagely.

Jason's mouth dropped open. What the heck? He'd been defeated- _him –_ just because he thought about… about…

She turned to go and Jason snarled in reborn rage. He shouted defiantly, but no bolt of lightning fired down from the sky to strike the daughter of Ares.

She turned in shock, to face her ex-opponent, still on the floor weaponless and spitting in rage.

"What the Hades, Zeus!" he yelled. "You're abandoning me? After all I've done for you?!"

His eyes flashing, he let out a scream of rage. Insane anger boiled up inside him. Butch sprinted down from the stands and grabbed his shoulders.

"Jason!"

Jason raised his hand to strike him down, but something stopped him. He looked at Butch, shocked and pleading, yet stern.

Then, he asked himself what the heck he was doing.

Slowly, Jason dropped his hand to his side. "Uh… sorry."

He slowly picked up his sword, sheathed it, and walked out of the arena.

Heading straight to the Zeus cabin, he asked himself what in Tartarus he was doing. He wasn't irrational, but he'd just acted crazy. He was calm and reasonable, but he didn't even appear sane.

Jason pushed open the door and didn't even notice the figure sitting on his bed until it was too late.

"Jason." Ryan said. "I need you to come help me with the plans for the search I'm organising to go overseas to Europe. Jackson just isn't in America, and that's the next big half-blood continent. We've looked everywhere. Lord Poseidon has sent envoys, and Jackson could have used some form of shadow-travel."

Normally, Jason have been interested. Today, he just muttered, "Great. He can't shadow-travel last I knew."

Ryan shrugged. "He might have had an accomplice. Did any of us really know Perseus Jackson?"

Jason finally snapped. "I don't CARE! He's a f***ing traitor that cost me my damned b***h of a girlfriend, and I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

Ryan looked at him incredulously, with something of a sneer. "Jason? Did I hear you right? Rethink this. You wouldn't want to go against Lord Poseidon, my _father."_

"That brings me to another point. This is _Zeus's_ cabin. Not Poseidon's. So get out."

Ryan snarled. "Bad decision, Grace. You're gonna regret this."

He walked coldly out of the cabin, so annoyed he completely forgot to administer the drugs to Jackson's little ex-girlfriend as usual.

 **Huh. Ryan's pissed. What's up with Jason? What will happen to him now? And what of the search going to Europe? Will they find the wizarding population?**

 **REVIEW AND VOTE!**

 **Unicorns are awesome, never underestimate weapon-wielding grannies you might possibly find in Tartarus, and Percy Jackson lives.**

 **Is anyone else ridiculously overexcited about Percy Jackson's Greek Heroes, AND Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer (Magnus and Annabeth are confirmed cousins!) both coming out soon?!**


	25. Chapter 25

**This is the last chapter for probably two days, as flying to Oceania from Britain takes a little while… CONGRATS TO QUEEN THALIA WHO WAS THE 350** **TH** **REVIEWER! I SEND LOTS OF ONLINE COOKIES AND THANK YOUS. YOU ARE AMAZING. THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SHOUTOUT FOR REVIEWER NO.400!**

 **Sooo. Poll results so far:**

 **Percy – 34**

 **Nico – 28**

 **Leo – 24**

 **Thalia – 16**

 **Reyna – 12**

 **Annabeth – 11**

 **Hazel – 8**

 **Jason – 4**

 **Frank – 4**

 **Piper – 4**

 **Calypso – 3**

 **Whoa. Hazel got a lot more votes. Anyways…**

 **Recommendations:**

 **Someone recommended PokeNerd to me in a review :) I haven't actually read his stuff, but check it out…**

 **But What About Annabeth? by giraffesplaycello**

 **Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Less Wrong. Okay, I'm just going to say this: the story has 16, 000 FAVOURITES. If that's not doing something right, I'm not sure what is.**

 **Jason**

Campers more or less avoided Jason over the next few days, and for that he was glad.

He'd talked no more to Ryan since their run-in in the Zeus cabin. Part of him thought, _oh, well, maybe it was an empty threat._

Unfortunately, that was the particularly stupid part of him. Jason also thought of it as the part that had dumped Piper and sucked up to Ryan in the first place.

Obviously, there was an amazing heroic part of him that had been part of the Seven and Hera's favourite demigod and stuff.

Unless that was the stupid part of him thinking… Ughhh. Even while Annabeth was lying comatose in the infirmary, her influence was still everywhere.

Jason really wanted to talk to someone about this- like, a self-named unpopular social reject whose best friends were ghosts and hellhounds. Heh, how about Nico di Angelo?

Actually, the son of Hades was exactly the person Jason _would_ have gone to… if he could find him. However, he appeared to have completely vanished in the last weeks. Jason could find little trace of him for almost a month, and it wasn't like many people were talking to him, anyway. When the twelfth person did that thing where they glanced over their shoulder, saw Jason, visibly panicked and half-ran away, he was pretty sympathetic with Nico and could perfectly understand all his rants about annoying campers.

The most forthcoming person was Clarisse, Nico's ex-ally in the Percy-Ryan war. She, however, hadn't seen him for at least a fortnight and apparently thought he'd gone shadow-travelling off somewhere.

Jason groaned and slumped down onto his unwelcoming bed in front of Hippie Zeus, unfortunately his best friend at the moment, and began to count the specks of dust on the cold, marble floor for the fifth time that day.

 **The Golden Trio**

"How was he able to do it, like, second try?"

Hermione and Ron watched Harry storming up and down in the common room from their safe vantage points sitting together on an embossed sofa.

"I mean, he's not even that good at magic-"

Ron interjected at this point. "I do hate him, and he's the biggest git I've ever met with the possible exceptions of your uncle and Percy at one point, but that's going a little far. He is actually… unfortunately, like, the second best student in the year."

Harry fumed. "I bet we're all better-"

"Actually," Hermione murmured. "We're not. He was the only student apart from you, Harry, who got an 'Outstanding' our O.W.L. year in DADA. And I heard he scored pretty highly in other stuff as well."

Harry slumped on a chair, defeated. "Fine."

Hermione considered. "Although, it was surprising about his Patronus. A massive animal like that, as well…" She shook her head as if to clear the thoughts away. "Slughorn throwing any of his parties yet?"

Harry shook his head. "Not yet."

His words, however, proved to last not long.

- _line break_ -

The next day, Harry, Hermione, Ginny and Ron all received a little green and gold embossed invitation to Horace Slughorn's November party.

Harry let out a groan when he saw his. The others, however, seemed quite excited.

"Wysiewanmekneeway?" Ron asked through a mouthful of butter-splattered toast.

Hermione and Ginny exchanged faintly revolted grimaces.

Ron swallowed theatrically and said, "Why does he want me there anyway?" 

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Isn't it obvious? You were running around with Harry and Hermione all year, and everyone knows you were simultaneously evading the Ministry, Voldemort _and_ his Death Eaters, _and_ doing something top secret to bring down Dumbledore at the same time. Not to mention the tiny, insignificant fact that Harry publically escaped death again and killed Voldemort in the battle."

Ron looked mildly impressed. "Oh. Yeah. I forgot."

Hermione smiled in exasperation, and kissing him on the cheek lightly, said, "Shouldn't we be in Potions?"

 **Yep. That was horribly short. I know.**

 **Also, VIQ (VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION). Should I have Annabeth wake up now, and Ryan kicked out, but the search for Percy still going? That way we could have an impending wizard-demigod war, with lots of Drastoria, Romione, Hinny, Percabeth Jasper and all the canon ships. Or, alternatively, I could leave Annabeth asleep, and have the camp on point of civil war with the Romans choosing sides as well when either Percy comes back to America or Annabeth wakes up THEN, stopping conflict, killing Ryan and they go to find Percy…**

 **Okay, that was confusing. Anyway,**

 **Option A: Annabeth wakes up now and they try to find Percy without Ryan. All canon ships, loads of fluff.**

 **Option B: Almost civil war when Annabeth wakes up, Romans and Greeks divided. Percy comes back to try and stop at request from Hazel and co.**

 **Option C: Almost civil war when Annabeth wakes up. She stops it and everyone unites to try find Percy…**

 **Whichever option will have lots of Draco, Percy's reaction to the camps wanting him back (or not), a clash of worlds and Ryan dying a painful and lovely death. And I'm not saying how it will end up…**

 **Roses are red,**

 **Violets are blue,**

 **It's not Valentine's Day but who cares,**

 **Please vote and review.**


	26. Chapter 26

**Sooo… back from the dead! I'm not quite sure who the 400** **th** **review was, as WE GOT 104 REVIEWS IN ONE CHAPTER, PEOPLE! CRAZY! But, the 450** **th** **reviewer was… writingmermaid ! Thank you so much! Another constant reviewer!**

 **Oh, yeah. Poll results.**

 **Percy: 39**

 **Nico: 31**

 **Leo: 28**

 **Thalia: 17**

 **Annabeth: 14**

 **Reyna: 14**

 **Hazel: 8**

 **Jason: 5**

 **Piper: 5**

 **Frank: 4**

 **Calypso: 3**

 **Things are spreading out! Percy is still at the front by a LONG way. I'm sorry to all those who are guests and voted in reviews, but although I read all your responses, I couldn't count everything! Which is, btw, amazing. KEEP VOTING!**

 **Who is a Dramione fan? They are actually my OTP, but then I love Perzoë as well. And Percabeth.**

 **Story…**

 **Percy**

There was another staff meeting that morning.

Percy had groaned when he heard it, because for an ADHD nineteen-year-old guy like him, 'staff meeting' was the definition of torture.

He took up a chair in between Professor Sprout, the Herbology teacher, and the redheaded Muggle Studies guy who had two kids at Hogwarts; the talented girl from seventh year, and Harry Potter's friend from eighth. Percy tried to remember his colleague's name. Something like Andrew Stoat? He considered. No… the old mythical dude. That round table guy- Arthur. And, now he thought about it, he remembered the surname, too; Weasley.

They talked about upcoming Christmas events for a while. The Slytherin guy- Slughorn- was holding two selective parties- one today, in fact, and then one the day before the holidays started. He'd tried to recruit Percy to come already, and it hadn't been easy to escape. Percy smirked slightly, remembering him Slughorn cornering him outside the common room for the fifth time just before a water balloon mysteriously dropped on his head. Probably Peeves, of course, it hadn't been him.

His eyes flickered restlessly to Arthur for a second, and he almost jumped as the older man's gaze turned straight towards him. He rolled his eyes, nodding slightly towards the main focus of the meeting.

Percy blinked, before realizing that he wasn't the only one completely and utterly bored here. He gave a tiny nod of his head, and mimicked a sigh.

The corners of Arthur's mouth twitched.

They kept communicating with tiny motions until the end of the meeting, when they rose and went their separate ways.

 **Harry**

Quite predictably, Ron had asked Hermione to the party. Harry and Ginny were also going together.

Neville, also invited, had gone around for the whole day racked with nerves, wondering if Hannah would be embarrassed to go with him. Eventually, Harry had pulled him aside and told him that, as they were pretty much dating, he should just ask her to go.

She said yes, and Harry's slight sort-of bit of matchmaking was over.

Harry donned his dress robes, reminiscent of those he had worn to the Yule Ball in fourth year, except obviously bigger, and a little darker.

Ginny decided on a white dress adorned with jade jewelry that George had bought for her last birthday, and Harry had a hard time keeping his jaw from the floor when she stepped out of the dormitories into the common room.

They waited for the others- Ron in dress robes cut like Harry's but a different colour, and Hermione looking stunning in a long, lilac silk dress.

Upon entry into the Great Hall, used specifically for this event this evening, they were greeted by an enthusiastic professor and loud music.

"Enjoy yourselves!" Slughorn boomed happily, before rushing off to greet an old acquaintance.

And, Harry had to admit, it looked great.

The ceiling was magically enchanted to look incredibly tall, with shimmering white marble pillars curving across the walls to meet, crisscrossing each other in an intricate design set under a scene mimicking the night sky and constellations. Clouds of silver dust were being sprayed magically out of silver basins around the walls, evaporating as they rose with small puffs. Some wizarding band were standing on a raised podium, playing a fast moving tune. House elves scurried around offering platters of food and wine to the students milling around the room. The atmosphere was contagious.

Hermione, laughing, pulled Ron off to dance. Harry glanced at Ginny with a questioning face, and she grabbed his hand as they headed after their friends.

Harry was reminded of his last dance with Parvati four years ago, but this was different. Ginny wasn't forcefully steering him; he actually knew how to dance now, and the extra height helped.

The music changed to a slowdance, and Harry shifted his hold. They swayed back and forth slowly, and he lost sight a everything else, burying his face in Ginny's hair and just holding her.

Eventually, about four songs later, they dropped out to sit together.

Presently, Ginny asked, "Where have Hermione and Ron gone?"

Harry glanced around. "Not sure. You think we should look?"

She shrugged in acquiescence and they headed outside together. Before long, Harry spotted two familiar figures sitting together on a bench. He began to head towards them, but Ginny tugged him back, muttering, "Don't be stupid!"

Harry realized what she meant, and began to back away, but he tripped over a tree root and got sent sprawling. The sound made Hermione jump up, before she saw them and relaxed, waving them over. "Hi!"

She rolled her eyes at Ginny. "Let me guess. He was trying to be subtle."

Harry blushed as the two girls laughed, but it was dark enough that they couldn't see. "Want to head back inside?"

Hermione nodded. "I guess it's getting cold."

Ron got up, grinning at Harry, and they headed back inside.

As they stepped through the doors, Hermione froze. "Oh, no."

Ron frowned protectively. "What?"

Harry looked around as well. What had she… oh.

Making his way through the crowds towards them was Viktor Krum.

 **Dun dun dun! It's not over yet…**

 **Draco**

Draco was actually having a good time.

He'd been invited- probably because of the extended guest list, and the fact there were so many rumours circulating about the fallen Slytherin Prince, Draco Malfoy. Slughorn wanted to hear them himself.

But Draco had done a pretty good job evading him so far, and he'd actually found a friend to come with him. Even if she was just a friend. Astoria Greengrass.

He was sitting with her, laughing at a joke, when he caught sight of a commotion out of the corner of his eye. He glanced up, diverted, his hand slowly lowering the glass of wine to the table.

"Er- excuse me a moment," he said, and jumped up, hurrying towards the open doors.

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, Viktor Krum and Ginny Weasley all seemed to be caught in a five way staring act. Shards of glass lay on the floor beneath Ron's outstretched hand, a pool of liquid slowly spreading. Dropped drink.

Draco watched in bemusement as the international Quidditch hero- best known Seeker in the world- moved towards Hermione and hugged her tightly.

Weasley's face was turning an interesting shade of puce, Draco observed absentmindedly. He hadn't seen that before.

Krum and Hermione let go, and she stared at him with a guilty mix of expressions on her face. She looked at Ron behind her, and opened her mouth to say something.

Then Ron ran at Viktor, Harry attempted to grab him, Ginny took Hermione's arms and dragged her from the room, and as Ron attempted to murder Krum, Draco stood there in shock, unaware of the hushed, shocked circle of people moving back around him.

Then Astoria ran up to him and yanked him towards the doors that led to the Slytherin common room, and Draco felt a completely strange urge to laugh, despite his unfounded concern for Hermione and the guilt at fleeing the scene.

No, this was _not_ how he had envisaged his evening.

 **Right. That wasn't supposed to happen. Yeah… I just suddenly considered what had happened to Viktor Krum after GoF, and that appeared.**

 **All options looking popular, will count them up next chapter.**

 **PLEASE VOTE AND REVIEW!**


	27. Chapter 27

**I am not dead! Sorry for the wait. I couldn't upload ANYTHING on the laptop I was using except, like, one letter, and it was SO annoying.**

 **Anyway! You will soon see what option has won! (Sorry, but I can't really say. It would ruin the plot.)**

 **Poll: (KEEP VOTING!)**

 **Percy: 45**

 **Nico : 37**

 **Leo : 33**

 **Thalia : 20**

 **Annabeth : 17**

 **Reyna : 17**

 **Hazel : 9**

 **Piper : 7**

 **Frank : 6**

 **Jason : 5**

 **Calypso : 3**

 **CHAPTER! (A little moan: why does everyone always spell Viktor Krum's name 'Victor'?)**

 **Hermione**

Hermione Granger, Golden Girl of Gryffindor, Muggle-born witch and Harry Potter's best friend, had been in some extremely odd situations before.

She had never been stuck like _this._

Ron, her boyfriend, had tackled Viktor Krum- best Seeker in the world, her onetime date, Ron's onetime idol- and was physically attacking him.

One very small part of her was actually wondering if he'd forgotten he had a wand.

The other part was so confused she didn't know what to think.

The two guys rolled into a table, grappling furiously as drinks smashed onto the floor and a couple of people screamed. One seventh year took a step forward – maybe to try and separate them – and promptly skidded into a small puddle of spilt firewhiskey, falling over flat on his back.

Hermione winced in sympathy, turning back to the fight at hand.

But Ron, although tall, was not at all strong and Viktor easily overpowered him once the shock was past slamming him into the ground, jumping up with a murderous expression.

Then, he seemed to notice the circle of shocked faces around him. His eyes sought hers for a reprieve, but she couldn't look at him. All she could do was helplessly stare at Ron, on the ground with a bloody face and dazed expression.

Oh, crap.

Hermione turned tail and made for the door, but she was blinking back tears and she couldn't see-

She slammed into someone's chest. She glanced up, almost crying, to see Draco Malfoy's grey eyes staring at hers.

Almost screaming with rage- _why_ did the damn idiot have to be here, now?- she shoved him aside and fled from the openmouthed gathering of the children of the rich and famous, her dress swishing behind her, a reminder of what had just been wrecked.

 **Harry**

"What the hell should I do?" Hermione slumped onto a rickety old chair, hidden deep in the Room of Requirement.

Harry stood next to her rather helplessly. He wished the Room would provide _him_ with a chair. Then he mentally cursed. What was he thinking?

"Ron's in with McGonagall right now," she murmured, staring straight at nothing. "Viktor crossed the property line and Disapparated. He didn't even say goodbye to me. Everyone's talking about what happened. It's just…"

The bell for dinner rang faintly from a long way away. Harry gently took Hermione's arm and led her out of the room.

 _line break_

They were sitting in a room at the top of Gryffindor Tower. No one else was there. Some little first year had wandered in at about 8:00, but one look at Hermione's tear-streaked cheeks and Harry's glare, she had scarpered.

The clock chimed midnight and Ron walked in. He stopped at the sight of Harry and Hermione in there together, and gave his friend a meaningful glance. Harry rose apologetically, moving outside.

Nothing good could happen now.

He stuffed his dad's old cloak in his pocket and headed towards the portrait hole, clambering outside and moving through the castle as silently as a cat. His shoes had a mind of their own as he slipped through the Great Hall, padding outside and wandering over to the lake. Removing his shoes, he dipped his feet in.

There was a rustle behind him. He half-turned, and was greeted by the sight of Professor Jackson moving over to him, moonlight rippling across his face. He was donned in perfect Muggle clothes, and somehow he just looked like any regular guy- except for his eyes. "Harry."

He just stared stupidly.

"That was an… uh, interesting day," Jackson continued as if he met students sitting down here at midnight all the time. "Don't worry," he gave a small laugh. "I won't turn you in. Gods… god knows I wasn't exactly the best student."

Harry frowned, opening his mouth to ask, but what came out was entirely different. "Hermione couldn't figure out what you were."

Jackson looked startled. "But you can?"

Harry shook his head in denial, mutely. He hadn't come any closer to finguring it out since he'd talked to Ginny that night.

Jackson considered. "I guess I could tell you… hardly be the dumbest thing I've ever done… not that that means much. But don't tell anyone, okay? We would both die if some… people found out."

Harry's jaw dropped open. "Er…"

He stared out at the lake. "You were raised by Muggles, right? I guess you'd have heard of the Greek gods?"

Harry considered, some vague memory buried away ages ago arising. "Yep. Zeus… Hephaestus… Ares… they lived on Mount Olympus. But what does that…?"

Jackson smirked and for a moment he looked young, younger than Harry, even. "It's weird. Far weirder than your world. This might sound crazy, but… they exist."

He stared stupidly for a moment. Then Harry's jaw made a conscious attempt to hit the floor.

How was this true? Was Jackson crazy? He knew it wasn't impossible… He'd had some pretty weird teachers before… but _gods, existing_? This was off the scale, this was as unnatural and unbelievable as…

 _As when he'd first discovered he was a wizard._

Jackson continued, seemingly unperturbed. "I had no clue when it started. I was twelve. I'd just been kicked out of my sixth school in six years for something I didn't do."

Harry nodded sympathetically, his thoughts still in a mess, ricocheting around his brain at the speed of the Hogwarts Express.

"These… monsters… kept coming after me. And then, one day, my mom took me away from my disgusting stepfather on vacation to Montauk beach. That night, I heard these strange sounds. My mom made me get in the car. We drove away. The car broke down, and this thing attacked us. Half-man, half-bull."

Harry frowned. Somehow, it all seemed weirdly understandable, and that monster… "The Minotaur?"

Jackson gave a grim smile. "I wouldn't say the name if I were you. It's not like Voldemort. Our names have real power."

Harry frowned, not all because Jackson had said 'Voldemort'. "You're a monster?"

Jackson laughed. "Of a sort. We fight them. We're… half human, half god."

Harry's jaw dropped. "What… you're saying you're a, um, semigod?"

The professor sighed. "A demigod. Think about it."

And Harry did. The seemingly wandless magic… the weird feeling of power… and the tattoo, the tattoo that didn't make sense…

"I'm Perseus Jackson," he said with a grin. "Son of Poseidon, god of the seas. And I was a hero."

 **Hermione**

Harry slipped out of the door and it shut with a bang.

"Ron," she said with a half smile, but she couldn't bring herself to ask how he was.

"Hermione." He said with a slight look of relief. He put his hands into his pockets awkwardly. "Er… sorry."

A spark of rage, which had been bubbling at the bottom of her stomach like hot tar, ignited.

"Sorry?" she whispered. "For what? Making a fool of yourself, and me, in front of the whole room? For attacking my friend for no reason?"

Ron shifted. "Yeah, I know, but he was- he was _leering-"_

"Was he?" she said, deadly calm. "Or did you imagine it? You know, Ron," she continued, the threat still lurking, "I kept in contact with him."

Ron looked slightly hurt. "What…?"

"We wrote to each other. He told me all about his next Quidditch games. And when his mother died. And-" she emphasized the word, "-when he got engaged to his girlfriend, _Varissa Poliakoff."_ **(Random unimportant OC)**

His jaw dropped. "Oh… Hermione, I'm sorry… I…"

"I'm sorry, Ron," she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking, "But you doubted me. You thought I wouldn't stay with you if the big, flashy Quidditch hero returned. So I'm ending this."

He looked heartbroken. "Hermione."

"Ron. I'm sorry. It's over."

She fled back to the girls' dorm before he could say anything else, then cast multiple silencing charms over her bed and lay there crying until dawn.

 **Draco**

"You think Hermione's okay?" Draco asked no one in particular, then realized Astoria was sitting beside him in the common room and groaned inwardly at his own tactlessness.

She rolled her eyes. "I know you're obsessed with Hermione Granger for no real reason. I'm not about to get jealous."

He relaxed slightly. "Really?"

"Not everyone wants to be Pansy Parkinson. That's mainly my sister."

"Well, I sure as hell don't," he muttered. "But, really, d'ya think she is? Weasley kinda… attacked Krum in front of the whole room."

Astoria looked pensive. "In her situation… yep, it was embarrassing. I wouldn't exactly be."

Draco sighed. "Yeah. I just… meh."

She blinked. "Meh?"

He snorted in amusement. "It means 'nevermind'. It's a Muggle thing I picked up from Goyle a while ago... My father would be disgusted."

Astoria's mouth twitched. "Huh. That's the first time I think you've ever said a sentence beginning with 'my father' without bragging or threatening someone."

He opened his mouth to respond, but someone across the room screeched, "Hey! Daphne's little sister!"

She glanced up in annoyance. "Huh. I hate that title."

"Is it true you went to the Slug Party with Malfoy?" screeched Millicent Bulstrode.

Draco sighed and prepared himself for the barrage of insults coming his way. "You should go," he told Astoria quietly.

She sighed. "No. I shouldn't, but… I'm going to. Sorry. Guess there's a reason I'm not a Gryffindor. Sorry."

Before she could get up, however, a group of girls came towards them, Pansy Parkinson at the forefront, clutching Daphne's arm.

"Aww! Astoria's dating the loser! What a perfect couple!" She turned to Daphne. "Hey, Daph darling, what d'ya think?"

A few more people looked up in interest, smirking slightly at Malfoy's face of irritation.

To her credit, Daphne looked uncomfortable. Or, Draco thought, maybe she just didn't like being called 'Daph darling'.

Daphne shrugged uneasily. "Yeah. I'll, uh, talk to her. Let's go, Pans."

The group crossed the room towards the girls' dormitories, and both Astoria and Draco breathed a sigh of relief.

 **Clarisse**

Ryan always visited Annabeth at about four in the afternoon, according to Will. So, it was safe to assume he drugged her then. And now she'd been threatened, someone was watching nearly all the time.

Clarisse La Rue was crouched outside the infirmary waiting. She checked her watch. 4:45. She blinked. He was definitely late, the punk. She passed the time fantasizing about the old forms of punishment her father had thought of a few millennia ago and wondering if she could get away with flaying him alive unnoticed.

Mmm. Probably not. It would be a little obvious when he turned up dead.

Shame.

5:00. 5:10. 5:30.

Six in the evening and he still hadn't come.

Smirking, she pulled out her small enchanted spray gun and flicked the switch.

A rainbow danced out of the nozzle. Curling her lip, Clarisse fished in the pocket of her cargo pants and tossed a drachma in. "Will Solace."

An image of the blond came up immediately. "Solace!" she hissed.

He turned from his seat on a bed in the Apollo cabin. "Clarisse! Has he forgotten?"

She nodded, grinning. "Well, it's not like he's turned up and Kayla was on shift watching the infirmary for three hours before me. Get Chris and the others. We are going to wake Chase up."

 **Annabeth**

She was curled up in a ball in the all-too-familiar grey smog, wondering why she was feeling more alive.

There was a bright light shining above her. What? She tried to blink, but the metaphorical lead weights were clamping down her eyelids tightly.

Her head hurt like hell and her mouth was full of a particularly dry kind of sawdust. Huh. Screw that. There was no way she was staying down here.

With a stupendous effort, Annabeth Chase opened her eyes.

"She's awake!" an excited voice reached her ears before something black and squishy was forced round her head and over her eyes.

"Lacy! Someone's gonna hear!" A familiar, deeper voice said. "Annabeth, it's Will. Don't talk. Sorry about the mask, but your eyes will be badly damaged if you see daylight now."

"More like night," someone muttered. "Clarisse did a terrible job alerting us."

"Shut it, punk!"

A kick and a yelp sounded.

Annabeth wanted to smile, but her lips wouldn't move.

 _Where's Percy?_

 **Percy**

Said Percy happened to be sitting by a lake in the cold and dark.

Harry had taken the news about gods and stuff surprisingly well. He wasn't even sure why he'd told him, but he felt… better. Lighter, now someone else knew everything.

Now, Percy was just sitting out here on his own.

He didn't get much sleep these days. Fewer nightmares that way. It had led to him sitting out here alone a lot.

He thought vaguely about the others. Hazel, Frank, Reyna, Nico. Were they missing him? Did they think he was a traitor? Were they searching for him?

"The cloaked dude we caught said we should go here!"

"Blame Piper! It was her charmspeak!"

"It's not my fault! Nico shadow-travelled us!"

"Well, he clearly got it wr-"

"Shut up!"

Percy blinked. Hallucinations. There was no earthly way four of his friends had tracked him down and kidnapped some poor wizard in the progress…

"There's someone by the lake!"

…was there?

"Huh. I still can't believe we hung around King's Cross for a _week_ trying to find another weirdo!"

"You're calling them weirdos? And it wasn't a week!"

"They wear robes! They _are_ weird."

"Hey, maybe Doctor Who is real and they're time travellers from the Middle Ages!"

"Sarcasm?"

"Maybe?"

"Guys, there is _someone by the lake!"_

Percy freaked out. Somehow, Piper, Nico, Hazel and Frank were here. He'd know their voices anywhere. Had Ryan convinced them he was a traitor?

He let out a hiss.

Then, someone kicked him in the neck, threw him to the ground and held a sword to his throat.

How had he not noticed them approach? Oh… shadow-travel. Great.

He twisted frantically, trying to reach his sword. "Look, Nico, Hazel, heck, Hades, whoever you are, it wasn't me, okay! I wouldn't drug her! I didn't-"

"Oh my gods," said (Hazel?). "Percy?"

 **Nico**

It hadn't been a fun few days for the Ghost King.

Nico enjoyed hanging out somewhere with practically no people… although Will around wouldn't hurt. Neither would a few antisocial, depressed, gloomy shades or spirits.

Hanging around King's Cross station, disguised, with a hamburger or some fries, waiting for the possibility of a weird, cloaked, potentially hostile dude to show up was _not_ his idea of fun.

Actually, maybe hostile would be good. He wouldn't mind a nice fight to the death at this stage.

So, when someone finally _did_ show up- muttering about ministries and Um Bridge and shackling bolts and people who ate death or something- Nico had had enough.

Consequently, he knocked the guy out and shadow-travelled to Piper to get her to interrogate the guy.

Asking if he knew of any Jackson, like the pair they'd seen before had said, and who he was, they'd gleaned a few things.

He was some kind of 'wizard', who worked at the Ministry of Magic under a guy called Kinsie Shackle-Bowl. Or something like that, anyway.

The only place he'd heard of a Jackson in the 'Wizarding World' was the new 'Defence Against the Dark Arts' teacher at a school named Hogwarts, for wizard kids.

So, naturally, they'd told him to take them there – he gave them precise directions, and promptly vanished out of thin air. 'Disipartion'?

Which was how they had shadow-travelled to Hogwarts and ended up with Nico with his sword to someone… Percy?'s neck.

"Oh, my gods," said Hazel, breathing heavily. "Percy?"

Frank looked around Frank-tically and suddenly shrank into a bulldog.

"We are in England," Hazel noted in amusement. "Um, Piper, can you-?"

Piper nodded, stepping forth purposefully. "Are you Perseus Jackson, son of Sally Jackson and Poseidon?" she said in charmspeak. Her words washed over Nico, and he murmured, "No," against his will.

"Are you trying to take me back to my… to Poseidon to get me executed?" (Percy?) asked abruptly.

Piper blinked. "Are you Perseus Jackson?" she said with force.

Suddenly, Nico felt himself thrown backwards, his sword spinning out of his hands. He landed hard on the ground as the guy stood up with ease. "Well, I could tell you the truth, although you should have already got it seeing as your charmspeak never really affected me much, Piper. That should be a clue. But, are you working for Ryan?"

There was dead silence. Frank turned back into a human, blushing.

"No," Piper breathed, as Hazel ran at Percy and tackled him with a hug.

"We came to find you. To come back to camp and help kick your lovely bro's butt."

 **Harry**

It was almost four in the morning by the time Harry wandered back to Gryffindor tower. Ron was slumped on an armchair, gazing at the fire. He barely looked up as Harry came in.

"She broke up with me," he said in hollow tones. "She actually did."

Harry winced, but to be honest he was barely considering what Ron had said. There was too much swirling around in his mind… Jackson, demigods, Greece, gods, monsters, Jackson…

It was hard not to feel sorry for the guy.

("Harry!" Ron sighed. "You're not even listening!")

He'd been ostracized by the people he'd saved countless times, kicked out of his home by his upstart half-brother.

(Ron threw an Exploding Snap pack at his head. Harry hardly noticed as it blew up in midair behind him.)

And, above all… he was a demigod. Not a wizard at all. And some… form… of Dumbledore had guided him here.

Ron hurled one of Hermione's old SPEW badges at him as he trudged upstairs.

 **Nice long chapter (by my standards) and things are heating up! There will be Romione, don't worry, 'cause I know if I didn't mention that I would have several angry Romione OTP shippers posting lovely creative murder threats.**

 **Seriously, I admire your dedication to painful torture. Are you past Death Eaters?**

 **Also, it might seem like this all happened too quickly, but with what I've got planned, it won't be...**


	28. Chapter 28

**Heya! I'm back. And apparently FFN isn't.**

 **Results haven't changed, as I think it crashed before anyone actually read last chapter, but PLEASE KEEP VOTING ON THE POLL ON MY PROFILE! (WHICH PJO/HOO CHARACTER IS BEST?!)**

 **Also, 550** **TH** **REVIEWER GETS A MASSIVE SHOUTOUT! IT COULD BE YOU!**

 **So, enough with cheesy stuff. Story.**

 **Jason**

Jason Grace was having a certifiably bad day.

In the current camp system, things were great for a few people, and terrible for everyone else.

The officers, those select few favoured by Ryan, were the ones who led all the search parties, who occasionally met with Lord Poseidon, who attended the once-counsellor-only meetings and who were given privileges such as access to the beach and use of any of the pegasi.

No one else had any rights at all… and Jason was now one of them.

Within a day of his disastrous meeting with Ryan, Jason was stripped of his position as Ryan's right-hand man. He was put under questioning about where his allegiance lay (he wasn't actually sure.)

Percy Jackson was a traitor. But Ryan was a complete and utter bastard child. And Piper, Jason's ex-girlfriend, had hijacked Blackjack and flown off to gods knew only differences: Ryan had the full backing of his father. Percy was officially a threat to Olympus, and Piper was deemed supporting him and therefore she had also committed highly punishable crimes.

Meanwhile, Jason's powers weren't working. It was like there was a block on them or something, and he suspected foul play. But it was draining, and as a result when he finally slumped on his bed in the Zeus cabin it was all too welcome.

But his dreams, as usual, were anything but.

 _Five figures were standing by a murky lake, glittering with moonlight. The clouds hung ominously overhead, although no rain was falling._

 _The first was a tall guy with the build of a sumo wrestler. His face was visible and Jason noted, with some confusion, that it was Frank Zhang._

Where was this?

 _The girl leaning on his arm was a lot smaller, and it was obvious from her unique golden curls, so like the metal itself, that she was Hazel._

 _There was another guy standing just behind them, and Jason realised with a small smirk that it was a surprised and annoyed Nico di Angelo. What was going on? They were all looking towards the others, the ones with their faces hidden._

 _There was a girl- he could tell that much. She had dark hair hanging down her back in a kind of braid and she wore a baggy hoodie like she wanted herself to hide away from the world. Something with a dull shine hung in her hair… a clip… a headband…_

 _Or, hypothetically speaking, a Cherokee eagle feather?_

 _Jason's heart gave a sickening twist as he realised it was Piper McLean._

 _Blood pounded in his ears as he looked on. Who was the last guy? Maybe her new boyfriend, he thought, as jealousy surged in his body. He wanted strangle him, choke him slowly and painfully… But all he could see was the guy's muscles and dark hair._

 _Hazel gave a laugh and ran towards him, hugging him tightly. Frank grinned at him, and Piper threw his arms around him and whispered something in his ear._

 _Jason was seriously angry now. Had she replaced him already?_

 _But there was that tiny voice in his head, the one saying,_ 'It was you who forced her to leave when you joined Ryan…'

 _It wasn't right- was it?_

 _Nico tried to slink off unobtrusively, but the guy laughed and reached for him, giving him a small bro-ish hug._

 _Even from this distance, Jason saw the son of Hades blush…_

 _And then he realised who it was._

 _Who this guy was that had stolen Piper from him. Of course._

 _Percy Jackson._

 **On Olympus…**

"You're cruel-hearted," observed Morpheus, god of dreams, as he watched the scene play itself out. "That scene meant nothing romantic and you know it."

The woman across from him, a blonde clad in leather with Tom Ford shades perched on her head, smirked. "What can I say? An eye for an eye. Jason had it coming when he joined Ryan's side. And Jason thinks it did."

"Aphrodite will punish you when she finds you meddled in her domain and ruined her daughter's relationship."

"I am punishing Jason as I see fit. That is my realm, not Aphrodite's. She cannot come after me without breaking the ancient laws."

Morpheus narrowed his eyes. "What about Poseidon? When he finds you knew where Perseus was all along… it truly was a mistake for Hecate to confide in you… he will be angry. And Jason is Zeus's son. Those two would have their revenge on you."

She laughed harshly. "Am I not Revenge itself?"

Morpheus hissed in annoyance of his own. "You are playing a dangerous game, Nemesis. You may wish you had not enlisted my help to bring Jason this dream."

She cracked open another of her specially modified fortune cookies as the God of Dreams departed.

 _The only thing that falls harder than a mountain is the sky itself._

 **Annabeth**

When she next woke, it was to a blinding light above her and the chatter of voices.

"You're awake."

Of all the unlikely things in this world, Clarisse La Rue was the one sitting by her bed. Albeit looking bored, but still sitting there.

"Wh-" Annabeth struggled to sit up, to her embarrassment. "Where's Percy?"

"What do you remember?" Clarisse asked calmly.

Annabeth's eyes flashed, but she couldn't really move as much as she wanted to hit the daughter of war.

"Side-effects of the drug Will procured for you." Clarisse stated. "I'll tell you later, Princess. What do you remember?"

She slumped against the pillows in defeat. "Um… by the borders. Dark. Someone… a new recruit… his face was blurry?"

Clarisse gave a curse in English. "It's worse than we assumed."

"What?" Annabeth looked around in panic. "Clarisse- please tell me where we are- where's Percy-"

Clarisse gave her a long, measuring look. "In Bunker Nine," she said finally. "Got it once Jake came on our side. And as for everything else… you've been out for a couple of months."

Annabeth's stomach gave a surge of bile. "What- no… I can't have been…" she ran a hand through her hair, but met only matted knots. "Ugh… No, you're joking…"

Clarisse finally scowled, a vaguely reassuring gesture. "You've caused a heck of a lotta trouble. And I guess I have to tell you what happened, if you don't remember."

 **Kinda short, but… it's an update. I hope this posts. It might not, with FFN's problems and stuff.**

 **Pleeeease review! Once more, the 550** **th** **person gets a shoutout!**


	29. Chapter 29

**Hey there! Next chapter, and I'm pretty sure you'll like this… although you might be disappointed… Please, please review!**

 **(Not sure who won the review thing yet, as it keeps changing the numbers of reviews up and down! :p If anyone knows, please say!)**

 **POLL:**

 **Percy: 46**

 **Nico: 40**

 **Leo: 34**

 **Thalia: 22**

 **Annabeth: 19**

 **Reyna: 17**

 **Hazel: 9**

 **Piper: 8**

 **Frank: 7**

 **Jason: 5**

 **Calypso: 3**

 **Annabeth**

Annabeth's mouth was agape and she was tempted to go all classic-fainting-princess, but she had to keep her composure. She was a daughter of Athena, even if she was having trouble understanding what Clarisse had told her.

"That stupid, stupid Seaweed Brain," she murmured.

Clarisse nodded thoughtfully. "Mmm. Come on. We are going to kick. Ryan's. Butt. Out. Of. Here."

Annabeth rubbed her hands together. "I like that idea. Now let's get going before Will realises I'm out of bed and throws a fit."

They walked through the cabins, Annabeth under her navy Yankees cap so no one would see her until she got to Ryan. **(I actually have a navy blue Yankees cap from the stadium! Although it's a problem wearing it because… well… when Annabeth has it on, she's kinda vanished.)**

Finally, then reached the Poseidon cabin. Annabeth drew out the note she'd written and pushed it under the door. Now, all the had to do was wait.

 **Ryan**

 _Commander-_

 _There will be a meeting at the dining pavilion for all campers to rile them up against Jackson. We'll make it look like he's a coward, scared, and that's why we haven't found him…_

 _Your faithful officers_

Ryan blinked. Why had he not been informed? Maybe he'd make some demotions later… some of the more annoying people could go…

He shrugged as he finished the note, and flinging on the armour his father had given him, he headed out of the door.

 **Annabeth**

"He has seriously taken the bait," Clarisse muttered. "Maybe he _is_ related to Prissy."

Annabeth smirked. "We have a pavilion to be at."

The two girls – if you could call Clarisse La Rue a girl – split up near their destination. Clarisse headed towards the crowds, slipping into her role as an ordinary camper. Annabeth moved closer to the newly constructed announcement station. Her lip curled at the sight of it, a blot on the familiar landscape **(Lol).** She would make sure it was… unfortunately destroyed in a few minutes.

Soon, Ryan strode up in full ceremonial armour, nodding to Chiron as he took the stage. Annabeth winced at the centaur's smile. What the hell was he thinking, supporting Ryan?

"Demigods," Ryan began. "As you are doubtless aware, the search for Perseus Jackson has been going on for months. It would seem he is hiding from justice like the coward he is… after all, only a coward would drug his doting girlfriend-"

"Huh, really?" Annabeth leapt down to the podium and yanked her cap off as a surge of anger overcame her. "It would seem that _you_ are the only one around here drugging people."

Ryan stumbled backwards in shock, and he was not the only one doing so. All around him, people were doing the same. There were several screams heard within the crowd; Annabeth caught sight of Lacy collapsing against a revolted Drew Tanaka in the corner of her eye, but she was only focused on one person.

"Ryan Matthews, you are guilty of using the drug Godsbane on a Heroine of Olympus, of corrupting other demigods, of manipulating Lord Poseidon with false words against your brother and of framing your said brother, the Savior of Olympus and yourself, for banishment and to be hunted down. How do you plead?"

Ryan gulped, backing away. "I… you're lying… um, Annabeth, you're disoriented… you've only just woken up…"

She shrugged. "I've been awake four hours, actually…" she gave him a brief, scathing once over. "Oh, screw this. I'm just going to kick your ass."

The whispers in the crowds doubled as Annabeth drew her sword and coolly waited for Ryan to draw his weapon.

"Annabeth!" Chiron cantered up to her. "Annabeth, rethink your decision! Ryan is your boyfriend, not a traitor!"

"That piece of scum was never my boyfriend!" she spat. "He frickin' drugged me into it. I love Perseus Jackson and he is not a traitor. Matthews, just before I impale you, what did you do to Chiron?"

"I didn't do anything!" Ryan said desperately.

"Don't lie," she said. "It won't make your death any easier."

"You don't mean tha-"

"Death," she said, her eyes flashing. "Noun: the action or fact of dying or being killed; the end of the life of a person or organism. Take it from Athena's favored daughter. Now, what did you do to Chiron?"

"Nothing-"

"You used Godsbane on him as well, didn't you?" She snarled. "The effects don't show on monsters or other creatures; as a centaur, he wouldn't reach the point of intolerance and the eventual coma I did. So, you didn't tell me. That means this will be extra painful."

In the crowd, she saw Clarisse not-so-discreetly draw her spear and head towards the front where Ryan's officers stood.

Realising he was stuck, Ryan finally drew Xiphos and turned to face her.

Annabeth knew she would win. According to Clarisse, he was crap at fighting, and she knew what she was talking about.

"Lovely," Annabeth smiled, and launched herself at him.

Ryan finally gave up the defensive, hurt boyfriend act and attacked back. He attempted to disarm her; she rolled under the strike and landed on him, her sword pressed against his throat. Knocking his own blade away with the ease of a toddler, she stabbed it into the ground so hard the Celestial bronze actually broke, the podium shattering just as she had wanted.

She moved back to finish the job.

Except, at that moment, the sea split open and all hell- or heaven- descended.

"Stop."

The lord of the seas's words cut through the impenetrable atmosphere with the precision of one of Artemis's hunting knives.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "Oh, hi, Poseidon. News flash: you've been drugged into hating Percy Jackson. News flash: I don't even care because that would mean I felt sorry for you. Which. I. Don't."

He shook his head lowly. "No. I am out of the drug's influence. And I wanted to apologise to you."

She beamed at him. "Great! Apology not accepted. Now, can I kill Ryan?"

"He is my son," Poseidon whispered. "However badly he turned out, he is my son."

Annabeth shrugged. "Huh… you're Kronos's kid, right? I'm pretty sure he doesn't have fond memories of the old father-son bonding times, down in Tartarus."

Poseidon nodded, a thin smile gracing his lips. "I have a better idea. And… someone I think you'll be pleased to see again."

There was a flash, and two figures appeared.

The atmosphere was so thin, you could hear a pin drop.

"Oh my gods," Annabeth whispered. "Leo? And… Calypso? I haven't seen you since you dropped in once just after the war to tell us your plans… oh, sh…er, sugar."

She jumped up and ran to hug them, along with most of the Hephaestus cabin… the ones that hadn't yet fainted.

"McShizzle is back," Leo grinned. "Who's the loser I made my genius plan up for?"

"So," Leo concluded, "Ryan gets to live out the rest of his life on a barren island with the same problems as Ogygia, with no visitors and no servants like Sunshine here had, with a TV like in the Hunger Games in the middle showing happy camp scenes without him and people dissing him for eternity."

Annabeth pouted slightly. "Yeah… 'kay."

Calypso watched her with a slight smile. "Yep, go do it. I know you want to."

Annabeth laughed, and in front of Lord Poseidon and the whole population of Camp Half-Blood, she walked up to a dazed Ryan and kicked him, with all her strength, in the balls.

Leo smirked. "Ah… good. Now I have that little zit on the end of my nose taken care of, who wants to bust out and find Percy to bring him back here?"

 **Ryan (futuristic POV, about 10 years later)**

Poseidon's fallen child was curled up on the jagged, black rocks (it was the most comfortable place on this island) when his daily food rations arrived. He reached out and looked mournfully at the dried insect casserole that had landed without any implements on the filthy sand in front. He took a tiny bite, retching at the taste, then slumped back and stared at the screen in front of him.

" _And then, Ryan got his balls kicked by Annabeth and went to his own personal hell. More than he deserved, but Poseidon intervened most unfortunately." concluded Clarisse, ruffling Alex Rodriguez's hair. "Which is the end of the story about why your name is Alex Perseus Not-Ryan Rodriguez."_

Ryan let out a moan and collapsed on the spikiest part of the rock, screaming in pain.

Ever since the fight with Annabeth, his buttocks had never been quite the same.

 **And… end! Of chapter, not the story :p Please, please review and tell me what you thought!**


	30. Chapter 30

' **Kay. First, thank you so much for all the supportive reviews, votes, favourites and follows this story has received so far! You guys are the best!**

 **To Matt: Hello. I've been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, and it's occurred to me you review a lot of stuff. It's also occurred to me, like, 99.99% of those reviews are pointless flames that just make people feel bad.**

 **If you thought that before you realized the story wasn't finished, why did you bother posting it? Please don't send me more annoying reviews like the one you sent last chapter. Thanks. I really appreciate constructive stuff, but flames don't do anything for the story at all.**

 **POLL RESULTS:**

 **Percy: 51**

 **Nico: 44**

 **Leo: 36**

 **Thalia: 23**

 **Annabeth: 21**

 **Reyna: 17**

 **Piper: 10**

 **Hazel: 9**

 **Frank: 9**

 **Jason: 6**

 **Calypso: 4**

 **Also, the gang that have found Percy don't know about the events of last chapter or that Annabeth is awake…**

 **Piper: Uh, yes we do! We had to watch you write it…**

 **Annabeth: I know! It was horrible pretending to be in a coma for** _ **that**_ **many chapters!**

 **Jason: Also, why am I a delusional minion-of-Ryan who breaks up with Piper?**

 **Percy: And I'm, like, supposed to be Persassish! I'm acting like an introvert!**

 **Draco: And why in Slytherin's name am I a loner idiot who hangs out with Daphne's sister and is obsessed with the little Gryffindor mud- Muggle-born?**

 **Me: Cause you're better that way. And Leo appreciates me, don't you, Leo?**

 **Leo: *shrinks under gaze of Annabeth, Reyna, Hermione and Percy* Uh…**

 **Annabeth: Stop manipulating people. That's Dumbledore's job. thaliatheawesome does not own PJO or HP. Now get to the story.**

 **Me: Uhhh… *backs away* Okay!**

 **Annabeth**

With Ryan put into a holding cell until the island was prepared and the rest of the camp duly swayed, it was obvious that the next step was to find Percy.

The first thing Annabeth did the day after putting Ryan down was to reinstate herself as head of Athena. She opened the beach and lakes up again, made sure Clarisse, Will, Jake Mason and the others were honored, declared herself acting head of Poseidon until Percy was found, and then set about ridding every trace of Ryan's short and unfortunate reign from the camp.

This meant destroying Ryan's temporary seat at the top table, taking down all the campaign posters declaring Percy a traitor, and removing all Ryan's personal stuff from the camp.

Which, unfortunately, meant going back to the Poseidon cabin.

Cabin 3 was a place Annabeth had avoided during the times when Hera had kidnapped Percy and she didn't know where he was. There were too many memories of him… in the Minotaur horn and the shield Tyson had made hanging on the wall, in the photo strips decorating the interior- of the crew of the Argo II, of Reyna, Nico, Grover, Rachel and Thalia, of their camp friends, but mostly of Percy and Annabeth, just smiling, being together. And, there were memories of the building itself.

And, for some reason, she wasn't looking forward to going back there again without her boyfriend. Percy, _not_ Ryan (Ryan being thereafter referred to as the Imbecile, she decided.)

But it had to be done, so it was with quite a sizeable amount of trepidation that she entered the somewhat forlorn cabin.

And blinked.

All Percy's stuff was, an inspection proved, shoved carelessly in the basement of a load of junk. There was a large statue of Poseidon and Ryan standing imperiously in the centre of the floor, somewhat like Hippie Zeus – as Jason had dubbed him – in Cabin 1. A second set of Ryan's armor hung on the wall; a file detailing the search for 'Jackson' was dumped in the middle of an unmade bed. Further inspections proved an old duplicate copy of a portrait of the Seven Percy hated was hanging on the wall, stuck full of darts especially around Percy, Annabeth, Percy, Jason, and Percy's general area. She realized with a start Jason was in camp and made a mental note to visit him as soon as this was done. Clarisse hadn't mentioned what had happened to him.

Savagely, Annabeth drew her dagger and cut all the darts away. She sliced the ruined picture to pieces and hurled it on the garbage heap with the darts, pulling out some matches and setting fire to the whole thing on the marble patio.

She grabbed all of Ryan's clothes and other stuff, hacking it to pieces and shoving it on top of the open fire as a vent for her anger and frustration. Athena's children were supposed to be cool and collected, but in this particular instance she didn't really care.

The Celestial bronze statue couldn't burn, but she dragged it outside onto the dying embers of the fire to get Malcolm to lift it into the sacrificial braziers later as a tribute to Percy Seaweed Brain Jackson.

After lugging all Percy's own stuff back upstairs onto his own bed she was almost exhausted, but Jason's non-appearance was nagging her and she needed to get it checked out.

Heading a door down to Cabin 1, she knocked hesitantly.

No answer.

Sighing, she kicked the door open and walked right in.

Jason Grace was lying on his bed at the back of the room with his face to the wall.

She walked over, calling, "Jason?"

He turned with a start, springing up with the reflexes only a war trained veteran could have.

"What the… Annabeth? You're awake?"

She considered him in shock. There were prominent bags under his eyes and his skin was so pale he didn't look like he'd slept at all. "Yes. I'm assuming you haven't moved from your cabin all day."

He glanced up in surprise. "How did you…?"

She gave a faint smile. "Other than the fact you look like death? Jason, I woke up, ousted Ryan and kicked his butt down to the cells in the Big House. If you'd been out at all, you would have known."

His mouth dropped open. "That git is gone. Thanks the gods… or demigoddess."

"Incorrect term," she said automatically, before grinning slightly. "Sorry. But… what the heck happened to you?"

"What happened to me?" he shrugged. "My fatal flaw- want for leadership and power- took over, I guess. I turned into a jerk, Piper left me and flew off with Blackjack, my powers stopped working for some reason and then I realized I was being a total idiot and denounced Ryan. I've practically holed up here ever since. Don't have the energy to do anything except turn up for dinner…"

Annabeth's mind was running at a million miles per hour. "Um… okay. You betrayed Percy and I, which means I get to kick your ass too, but you look so pathetic right now I can't really do it. You'll be tired because you can't use your powers, but the question is, can't or won't?"

Jason looked at her in disbelief. "What the Hades?! I've been trying and trying…"

She shook her head. "I mean, no. Your subconscious has locked it away. You've strayed so far from who you actually are that it won't let you use any powers, and that's why you've been growing weaker. Jason, this isn't you. There's this thing some kids of Poseidon inherit. Ryan never showed many signs of controlling water, right?"

Jason frowned. "No. It never occurred to me…"

"Percy's powers in water and liquid controlling are so heightened he never gained this other ability. It's a little like charmspeak, I guess, except less persuasive. More gradual. If you're around that person long enough, you start believing them, and I'm guessing that's what happened to Poseidon. Only demigods and gods can be affected by it. I think you were under its influence. He probably targeted you because of your power and influence to help sway the camp."

He blinked. "Okay… right. Just give my normal brain a moment to catch up to speed."

She laughed. "But you said Piper left? Do you know where she went?"

Jason shook his head miserably. "I have no clue. To the Romans?"

"Worth a try," Annabeth hedged.

She dragged Jason back to Percy's cabin and made use of the Iris-message fountain. "O Iris, show me Reyna, Camp Jupiter."

The mist shimmered and an image poured out.

"- and tell them they have five days to formally resign their positions and leave the legion," Reyna was saying.

"Reyna!" Annabeth called.

The praetor turned in shock. "What… Annabeth? And Jason? What happened to you? Annabeth, you're awake? What-"

"No time for questions," Annabeth interrupted. "Have you seen Piper lately?"

Reyna blinked. "Er… no. But-"

"Sorry gotta go!" she swiped her hand through the image and the connection went blank. "Okay… I don't know if this will work?" She tossed a drachma in and intoned, "Iris, goddess of the rainbow and great messenger of Hera, please show me Piper McLean."

Nothing happened. They waited. And waited.

"I don't think-" Jason began.

Then it flickered and a brief image of Piper standing in an arena with some others popped up, shimmering before it disappeared again, flickering on and off.

"Piper!" Annabeth called. "Can you hear me?"

"Wh…a…Anbeth?"

It flickered like static on a shaky radio connection.

"Piper, please tell me where you are!"

"Ho… awake?"

"Piper, _where are you?"_

"In… Ingo- la…ng… Ingloaned… wizar…s an per… here… hazyfran…co!"

"Okay!" For a second time, Annabeth's hand cut through the Mist. Jason was looking confused and slightly longing. "What did she say?"

"She's not in America," Annabeth mused. "Because I couldn't get through properly. Ingo-land. I think she meant England. And something about wizard? That doesn't make sense, I must have misheard. Hazel and Frank. Maybe they're with her! And I think she said per-something! Jason, maybe they've found Percy!" her face was alight with happiness.

Jason shrugged. "Hey let's do the obvious, demigod-impulse thing and go search England for some demigods, right?"

Annabeth grinned. "Yup. Clarisse will come, as well. Let's grab Tempest and follow the monsters!"

 **(For those of you wondering, Piper said, "In England. England! With some wizards, and Percy's here! I'm with Hazel, Frank and Nico!")**

 **So, apart from the ending… the beginning… and the middle… what did you think? Annabeth, Jason and Clarisse are going to England with no clue where to look! (No, Draco is not on vacation this time) … and now Piper knows Annabeth is awake! What's gonna happen? Did anyone notice something significant on Reyna's end of the IM?**

 **Review!**


	31. Chapter 31

**And… another chapter. I was feeling nice.**

 **(Did you know there was a wedding going on outside my hotel window just then?!)**

 **Also, when we were driving here, there was a taxi driver who also happened to be a multi-millionaire about to buy eight more houses. It was really normal.**

 **So… poll is the same, if you're wondering. Recommendations:**

 **Prince by InkstainedHands1177 (PJO post BoO where Poseidon, Amphitrite and Triton take Percy to Atlantis to discover his heritage as a prince of the seas.)**

 **Fire At Will by o Mischief Managed (PJO where Annabeth is a CIA assassin given her next task: to hunt down and kill Percy Jackson for reasons unknown to her. Percabeth. Two sequels: Eagle Eye and Blackout.)**

 **Amber Ashes by o Mischief Managed (PJO. After the Giant War, Octavian doesn't die and Reyna rules jointly as praetor alongside him. They pretend to be in a relationship, Reyna playing along for the legion's sake, but when Leo comes to Camp Jupiter on a boat project… Leyna ensues.)**

 **Aurelian by BittyBlueEyes (HP. A young boy arrives at the Burrow, covered in blood that isn't his, two years after the war with Voldemort ends, with only a time turner, a vial full of the memories of his mother and a ring. Mystery, Dramione.)**

 **Anyway… chapter. (Recommend any story you want for me to put on here next chapter.)**

 **Piper**

"Guys, I can't go back there." Percy said with an air of finality. "These people have accepted me. The gods used me for their own benefits and discarded me like trash… even my own father and friends. Sorry."

"I've been meaning to ask, who are these guys?" Nico asked, exactly the time as Hazel said, "What?"

Percy sighed. "Sorry, Haze. And- Nico- they call themselves wizards. They can do spells using wands, and this is the main British school for wizards and witches. I think the guy you kidnapped might have been from the Ministry of Magic- it's like their Government, except, there are _loads_ of departments. Apparently 71% of people- wizards- working in the UK are there."

Hazel stuck out her bottom lip in an unusual display of petulance. "Annabeth would have wanted you to come back."

Percy froze for a moment, closing his eyes. "Please don't mention her…"

"Why not?" Nico interrupted. "Hazel's right. We could go back to camp and beat Ryan. We…"

"Piper!" someone called. "Can you hear me?"

Piper spun around. It couldn't be… what the heck? "Annabeth?" she shouted.

Her friend was standing in an Iris message behind her, next to… no… not Jason?

Piper's heart filled with painfully constricting emotion. Behind her, the others had fallen silent.

"Piper, please tell me where you are!" Annabeth said. She looked like she'd never been… ill. Jason, on the other hand, looked terrible. There were bags under his eyes, and his skin was gaunt and pale.

"How are you _awake_?" was all that could come out of Piper's mouth.

"Piper, _where are you?"_ Annabeth said, almost snapping with urgency.

"In England. England! With some wizards, and Percy's here! I'm with Hazel, Frank and Nico!" Piper blabbed, hardly believing what she was seeing.

"Okay!"

A hand flashed down through the image, and it shimmered and vanished.

Percy was staring at the image with a strange expression on his face.

"I had a dream that she hadn't actually cheated on me? That Ryan had drugged her?"

Piper almost facepalmed at how little he knew. But how could he know anything? _She should have thought of this before…_

"Five second version: yep, it was right. Annabeth fell into a coma and it looks like she's woken up. Which means… Ryan will be getting his butt kicked about now."

"It wasn't her…" Percy murmured.

Then, his face hardened. "Forget it. Forget everything I said. We are going back to America right now."

 **Uh… whoops. Everyone's going to miss each other…**

 **Reyna**

Reyna was having a good day.

Soon, Octavian's old supporters in the Senate would be formally kicked out. The rebels had been put down with the help of Mike Kahale. She would have to call Frank via IM… but not right now.

As she relaxed in her office, considering giving in to temptation and spinning round and round on her chair, there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!" she called lightly.

A scared looking centurion entered. "Praetor… can you sign these papers? The Senate have drawn up an agreement detailing the traitors' departure from the legion and we need you to sign…"

She nodded, smiling at the surprised soldier. "Of course." She glanced over the documents and, finding nothing amiss, prepared to sign.

The pen flicked across the paper that had been dipped in the River Tiber, making it a binding contract, and she sat back with a content smile.

" Take this back to Centurion Dakota, and then visit the accused and tell them they have five days to formally resign their positions and leave the legion," Reyna said.

The door banged as the soldier slipped out, and a voice called, "Reyna!"

Reyna spun round in shock. _Annabeth Chase_ was standing in an IM, her head right next to that of Jason Grace, of all people.

Reyna's mouth dropped open in record time. "What… Annabeth? And Jason? What happened to you? Annabeth, you're awake? What-"

"No time for questions," Annabeth interrupted. "Have you seen Piper lately?"

Reyna blinked in surprise. Piper was at camp, wasn't she? "Er… no. But-"

"Sorry gotta go!" Annabeth's hand slashed down through the Mist and the connection went blank.

Reyna sat back in shock, then practically sped towards the centurion's quarters. "Dakota? Going to see the Greeks. You're in charge 'till I get back. Make sure the traitors depart, okay?"

As soon as she was sure she couldn't be seen, she sprinted towards her private stables and clambered up on her pegasus, Scipio's sister Agrippa, kicking her heels and leaning forwards as they soared upwards, the wind whipping her hair.

The Little Tiber glistened like a writhing snake under the sun as they hurtled across the horizon and into Zeus's domain.

 **Hope you liked it! A little short, but not too bad… I hope. Please, please review! I know some people don't like Reyna, but I felt this story kinda needed the Romans in it somehow… Hazel and Frank didn't really compute.**

 **Also, I realized that I need to announce the 550** **th** **reviewer, and according to TheWritingReader, it was EmmaTheHPJOnerd (guest)!**

 **If it was you, (and I'm trusting TheWritingReader because they are awesome) thanks so much for reviewing! Your review was really positive and it made me smile so much!**

 **Currently, we are on 598 reviews. By the time I am able to post this I hope it will be more…**


	32. Chapter 32

**Hey there! Another chapter of Persassy the Professor!**

 **So… Poll.**

 **Percy: 52**

 **Nico: 45**

 **Leo: 38**

 **Thalia: 25**

 **Annabeth: 22**

 **Reyna: 18**

 **Piper: 11**

 **Hazel: 11**

 **Frank: 9**

 **Jason: 7**

 **Calypso: 4**

 **It will officially end on the last chapter (which won't be next update or anything. Don't worry. Maybe ch40? Not sure.) Keep voting!**

 **THE 600** **TH** **REVIEWER WAS OFFICIALLY** **AMAZHANG16 (guest). Thanks for the incredibly supportive review :) Hope you review again soon! (p.s. is your name connected to Frank Zhang or is it just, you know, amazhang?) (p.p.s. I'm not even making any sense.) (p.p.p.s still, reply if you feel like it and you're reading this :D).**

 **To everyone else, please keep reviewing! As long as I can tell, shoutouts will be given to everyone who hits the 50 mark! (You know what I mean. 650, 700, etc.)**

 **Also, THE 750** **TH** **and 1000** **th** **REVIEWERS (AS LONG AS IT'S NOT A GUEST) WILL GET A ONE-SHOT FIC TO THEIR SPECIFICATIONS! N.B. I won't do anything M-rated, and no boy/boy. It has to be Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, or a crossover between the two. Also, a story, not a songfic or anything.**

 **Annabeth: *groans* stop encouraging people to review this horribly inaccurate writing and get on with the story!**

 **Hermione: I agree.**

 **Percy *munches pizza* yep. I don't want Wise Girl mad at me… more than usual…**

 **Annabeth**

"You two owe me big time when this is over," Clarisse muttered, eyes squeezed shut as she clung to Tempest's neck. "This is torture."

Annabeth smirked slightly. "How were supposed to know you were freaked out by storm spirits?"

Jason, Annabeth and Clarisse were all seated on Tempest the _ventus_ 's back, hurtling across the Atlantic Ocean. Just like, _oh, yeah, we're on vacation. Three vaguely friendly people of varying age riding a storm spirit/ major AC outlet from Greek mythology across the second biggest ocean in the world. You know, New York to England. Casual day trip with no adult supervision discounting a slightly mad daughter of the god of war, who happens to be… what, 21?_

Annabeth almost laughed out loud. The electricity zipping up and down Tempest's back made her feel more awake than ever.

What? She was Zeus's granddaughter, and she was dating his nephew – or she _was –_ and she was friends with Zeus's cousin, Piper, who happened to be even younger than _her._ And Piper was Zeus's son's ex. Said Zeus's son was also Clarisse's uncle, even though he was really younger than her… ugh.

Don't think too hard about that stuff. Percy found that out the hard way when he realized he was related to a golden sheepskin…

Annabeth's usually stormy grey eyes, if anyone had been looking, would have seemed particularly distant in that moment.

She was never one to underestimate a situation, and she honestly had no idea what she would find in England. However, she wasn't expecting to fall into Percy's loving arms that quickly. He still thought she'd betrayed him, and even if she hadn't known it at the time, she kind of had…

Tears filled her eyes as she gazed unsteadily at the horizon.

 **Nico**

"I hate to send your hopes crashing to the floor and everything, but how can we get there?"

Everyone turned and blinked. "Er…"

"The way you came?" Percy asked.

Nico shivered, but partially in annoyance. "Uh… the way we came was shadow travelling, and I was out for days, and my head is still throbbing like Tar… er, that place."

Hazel glanced up. "We could always use Arion."

"We wouldn't all fit," Nico sighed.

Frank sighed hopelessly. "Er… I suppose Piper could charmspeak us a plane-"

"NO!" yelled Percy, Hazel and Nico at almost exactly the same time.

Nico blushed and glanced away, Percy not meeting his eyes in an equal display of awkwardness. "Er… don't worry." A spark danced in his eyes. "Well, Nico might. There's another way to get over an ocean with me around. Several, actually."

 **Hazel**

Hazel might have been dreaming, because she didn't think she'd ever seen anything so bizarrely beautiful.

The horse-fish things danced below them with breathtaking speed, occasionally jumping up and nudging Percy's outstretched hand.

Said Percy his eyes closed, listening intently. "They say they'll take us. Another group will take over once they're tired."

"Seriously?" Piper asked in amazement. "Just like that?"

Percy waggled his eyebrows. "I _am_ the younger Prince of Atlantis, you know."

Nico flinched. "You sure your father will be okay with this?"

Percy rolled his eyes. " _Poseidon_ will be fine. If he didn't incinerate Annabeth for sending that message, it's a fairly good sign Ryan's been jacked. Stop making up excuses for going in the sea."

Hazel would have complained before, but one look at the hippocampi had sold the idea to her. They were just so… mesmerizing, the patterns their rainbow-colored, shimmering tails made as they flicked trails of droplets over the water.

Percy shot her an amused glance. "Let's go, before Hazel falls in love with the hippocampi instead of Frank."

She blushed furiously as Percy jumped into the sea.

 **Recommendations:**

 **To Shape and Change by Blueowl (HP. Brief time travel on Snape's part where he goes forward in time and sees the destruction of wizards if he opposes Harry. He befriends him on the day Hagrid takes him to Diagon Alley…)**

 **Eight and Eighth by Marmalade Fever (HP. Eight students come back to Hogwarts for a final year, including a fatherless Draco Malfoy, and Hermione Granger… Dramione. EWE Dramione Awards winner.)**

 **Trouble by Wanda Ginny Greenleaf (HP. Harry Potter drowns out his childhood neglect by becoming a young criminal. When he comes to Hogwarts, chaos ensues… Dumbledore bashing, Harry has mortal juvie friends.)**

 **Playing The Player by blank canvas of me (PJO. Sick of Percy Jackson's player ways, Annabeth challenges him to a contest where they pretend to date, and the first person to fall in love with each other loses, but things soon spin out of control and it seems someone is out to get them and their friends… dead or alive. Thalia x Malcolm, brief Thaluke, Percabeth… gets pretty dark.)**

 **Vote and REVIEW!**


	33. Chapter 33

**Aaaand… chapter 33. Poll results the same cuz I just wrote last chapter. Seriously, I was thinking about this on the plane back home, and it's really sad. Fanfiction has taken the little social life I had. The sacrifices I make… (I mean, if I had a social life, it would have been a sacrifice. Theoretically.)**

 **Annabeth: stop being annoying and get on with it.**

 **Me: Annabeth Chase** _ **wants more of this story?**_

 **Annabeth: No, I want it over. Although, it got a heck of a lot better once I woke up… obviously.**

 **Percy: I need a bigger role, by the way! You named this whole thing after me but I'm sitting around moping like an idiot!**

 **Me: No. You're the focus of this story, not the main character.**

 **Leo: OBVIOUSLY, THAT IS THE FLAMING HOT VALDEZ!**

 **Me: Uhh…**

 **Annabeth: It's obviously me, because I defeated the enemy… Ryan. That makes me the heroine.**

 **Reyna: Uh, no! Can you not see where this is going? Camp Jupiter is tipping the balance, and with Frank gone, I am acting both praetors! I'm the most important.**

 **Draco: What are you talking about? It's focused on me, as the main character from the superior fandom. Even if it was named after Potter.**

 **Everyone else: Shut up!**

 **Me: And I am boring my readers. Nico, Hazel, Frank, Piper, Percy, get on the hippocampi! Annabeth, sit on Tempest over here! Jason's already there! Why can't you be like him?**

 **Percy: 'Cause no one wants to be like him.**

 **STORY.**

 **Harry**

Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One, defeater of Lord Voldemort, etcetera, was having a bad day.

If you combined his unfortunate eighteen years, that was saying a lot, if you put it up against stuff like nearly getting strangled by and evil necklace in a fountain, destroying several thousand prophecies in a fight to the death, getting killed and resurrected, almost being killed every other day…

Firstly, he was obviously hallucinating, because he could have sworn Professor Jackson said he was a half-god last night by the lake.

A dream?

Harry didn't think so.

Also, once again, he was a caught in the middle of a vicious game of tug-of-war between Ron and Hermione, who were currently gossip number one.

He should know. He lived with Lavender.

And the proverbial cherry on the cake appeared when Jackson vanished in the night and didn't show up the next morning.

It was a miracle Harry noticed, really, seeing as he was busy checking his personal, newly constructed Hermione-and-Ron-proof wards were secure when McGonagall announced that Jackson had gone MIA… or MNIA (missing not in action).

She promptly took over his classes for the day, but although Harry was certain learning about how to repel Ukrainian Ironbelly dragons **(they exist in HP, not made up by me)** was quite fascinating, his mind was wandering elsewhere.

And it wasn't to Ukraine.

Ron had paired up with Neville and Hermione with Padma Patil, and even from his seat by Ernie Macmillan, Harry could practically see the waves of tension radiating of Hermione as she tried not to look at Ron.

If she had, she would have seen a rather inventive scowl being portrayed by the youngest Weasley brother as he stared stubbornly at the wall as if trying to divulge its secrets.

 **Annabeth**

As Annabeth strolled back with some hamburgers and fries to go from a fast food stall, she found Jason and Clarisse standing together, heads bunched over a map.

Jason looked up hopefully as she approached. "Annabeth! Oh, my gods. These streets are so confusing. I'm not even kidding."

Clarisse, for once, seemed to be in agreement. "Why can't they use blocks here like everyone else?" she grumbled.

Annabeth raised one eyebrow. "London's an old city. It grew instead of being planned. It won't have a grid layout like places in America."

Clarisse groaned. "Hold it, Owl Princess. Just _look_ at this map. I have no clue where we are!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Uh, see this thing that says 'Madame Tussauds London'?

Clarisse nodded in suspicion. "Yep?"

Annabeth blinked in disbelief. "Oh, my gods. Do _not_ tell me you've never even heard of Madame Tussauds'."

Jason shrugged. "I haven't. None of us got a proper education, right? You're probably the only one here who read up on enough to fix that."

"No kidding." Clarisse muttered. "Why am I here?"

Annabeth smirked and yanked out the burgers.

"Oh," Clarisse grabbed one quickly. " _That's_ the reason."

Annabeth rolled her eyes again, dipping a chip in ketchup. "But, anyway, it's only the most famous waxwork place _ever._ And we are practically just outside- no, Jason, I'm not going to drag you in there- but we're kind of in a good place right now. We're near Marylebone Station, the Tube is really close-"

Clarisse snickered. "Seriously? The Tube? What a weird name."

Annabeth raised one eyebrow. "They named it that because it literally is tube shaped. Apart from wheels and stuff."

"Still weird."

"-anyway, Marylebone, the Tube, and I think King's Cross are near."

Jason slumped to the ground against a street light pole, fist crushing his burger into a squished mess. "All we know is _England."_

Annabeth nodded seriously. "I know! It's so frustrating…" She leaned down next to Jason. It was getting quite humid. Odd, for England…

A slightly clammy feeling came over her. Her eyes wanted to close so, so badly. She blinked furiously, hit a drowsy Jason, forced her mind to stay active. She'd never felt anything like this… Red hot anvils pounded inside her skull… she could just drift off to sleep… sleep…

A hand descended on her face and slapped her back into blinding reality.

Clarisse La Rue was looking suspiciously like she was thinking about passing out, too, when the pressure suddenly lifted.

Annabeth's hand fumbled its way to her dagger, and she whirled around, in a fighter's stance as her friends sprang up beside her, a little slower.

But even Annabeth wasn't fast enough.

In seconds, someone invisible punched her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her; she retched desperately as she was pushed to the ground, the point of a blade into her throat.

Jason gave a shout, but he was still too dazed; Clarisse looked like she wanted to jump in and fight, but the telltale beads of blood at Annabeth's throat made her stop.

"Surrender," a disembodied voice said, indistinct and mysterious, that sent shivers up Annabeth's spine. "I do not mean to harm you, kidnap you, hold you prisoner, or trick you. I swear it on the River Styx. She will be returned within this hour. Do you understand?"

Annabeth shook her head violently. The blade pressed a little deeper into her throat and she gave a weak, rasping cough.

"Do you understand?"

She felt so, so dizzy. So confused. Her captor gave her a slight shake. "Please," the voice said urgently. "I do not have much time."

In the haze of her subconscious, the voice sounded a little like Percy's.

With the last of her strength, Annabeth gave a tiny nod.

"You are awake."

Annabeth blinked and sat up, her head twisting from side to side.

It looked like… a temple, but not ruins. Far more like those she had designed on Olympus. "Where… who…"

"We are in a replica of a temple once created to honour the might of all the gods of Greece," the voice said. "As for who I am, I cannot say."

Annabeth raised one unimpressed eyebrow. "I meant, who do you work for?"

The voice gave a low chuckle. "You do have guts. I did help she who gives and takes what is due, the night and shadow's rebirth, the false mother of light, the twins and the schemer."

Annabeth blinked. "That's not an answer."

"It should be enough, for a child of Athena, her most favoured daughter, no less."

"The night and shadows… Nyx and Erebus. Light must mean Helen of Troy. the twins? In Greek, I'm guessing Castor and Pollux, and the schemer; Clytemnestra's original name, Klytaimestra. So that means… she who gives and takes what is due is-"

"Careful, demigod. Names have power."

Annabeth looked up stubbornly. "I don't feel like I can trust you."

The voice gave a low chuckle. "I'm not surprised. And here I thought you were clever."

 _Don't take the bait,_ Annabeth thought furiously. _He's goading you. Don't let him win._

"Did you?" Annabeth replied in a perfectly neutral voice.

This time, a laugh that echoed around the room. "You impress me, for a demigod, daughter of Athena. I heard you dared question Damasen."

"I've dared to do a lot of things."

She linked her hands behind her back so he wouldn't see they were shaking. "Enough games. Tell me what you want."

Suddenly, a figure appeared, standing at the altar with his back to her, long, pale hair falling past his ghost-white shoulders.

"You should know," he murmured. "Do you not assume, if my mistress knew I was here, I would let you speak her name? This is a warning, Annabeth Chase. Things are not as they seem. An eye for an eye. Jason Grace wanted power, and his girlfriend left him. Ryan tried to beat Percy Jackson, but you beat him instead. Daughter of Athena, my mistress does not like unpunished crimes."

"I haven't done anything," she whispered.

"Oh, but you have. You were a pawn on the chessboard, Annabeth Chase. Do you really think it is only the king that can take his counterpart down?"

"It wasn't my decision! This isn't fair…"

"Annabeth, Annabeth. Do you really still think life is fair? You cannot always live your dreams without them turning sour. I would know. They are my domain."

The god of dreams turned from the altar. "Jason Grace is angry. He is not telling you everything of what happened last night. You must find it... find it, Annabeth Chase, and reach the truth."

Morpheus's swirling eyes were the last thing she saw before blacking out.

 **Like it? No? Review!**


	34. Chapter 34

**Hey guys! So… sorry for the little break I took from this story :) I am now OBSESSED with The Maze Runner, Newt, Dylmas, and Thomas Brodie-Sangster. Like, seriously. I spent two weeks of my holiday non-stop internet stalking whenever I could. If any of you like TMR too, I am doing a few fanfics on it. Newt-based.**

 **Anyway. We are back in Harry-Potter-and-PJO-verse.**

 **Annabeth: As usual, you forgot to say that you do not own either the Percy Jackson and the Olympians or the Harry Potter franchises.**

 **Hermione: Full credit goes to Rick Riordan and JK Rowling.**

 **Percy: And Domino's Pizza.**

 **Annabeth: Er, Domino's has nothing to do with our fandoms, Seaweed Brain.**

 **Percy: Domino's should own the world. I'm not joking.**

 **Annabeth**

"Annabeth? You awake?"

Light was flooding into the world all too fast. There were splodgy red patches on her eyelids, and she could almost hear the killer migraine coming on.

Pushing her hands over her eyes, she blinked groggily, senses slowly coming back in a horrible rush.

"Well, she's moving," commented a dispassionate voice.

"Heltoo, 'Risse," Annabeth mumbled, groaning as stones dug into her back.

"Er… what?"

Making an enormous effort, Annabeth sat up and found herself lying on a London sidewalk- no, pavement- right next to a set of traffic lights. The sound of cars zooming up and down drilled into her brain, not to mention the pedestrians giving them weird looks.

"Hi," she said finally.

"What happened to you?" Jason asked quickly. "I woke up lying just next to where you are now, and you were gone. Clarisse was passed out next to me. She said some mysterious guy had come and taken you."

Annabeth wanted to laugh, but her head was growing steadily worse. On the other side of the lights, a little kid holding loosely onto a plastic bowl of ice cream tugged on his mother's manicured fingertips and gestured towards them, giggling, chocolate ice cream smearing across the woman's heavy brown coat. She followed the trail down with her eyes, aghast, and Annabeth looked away.

"Annabeth?" Jason waved his hand in front of her face. "Uh, hello?"

"Could you not talk so loud?" she muttered. "I think I have a migraine coming on."

Scowling, Clarisse dug around in her bag and tossed Annabeth a bar of ambrosia. She made no attempt to catch it and the crumbly substance hit the ground with dull thunk, breaking in two.

"Well, eat it."

Shivering- it had suddenly turned cold- Annabeth's fingers scraped bare cement twice before she finally grasped the pieces and crammed them inelegantly into her mouth.

Almost immediately, she began to feel better, a fiery feeling spreading through her insides and clearing her jumbled head, the taste of the hot chocolate she'd had in New Rome overloading her taste buds.

Annabeth jumped to her feet, fully invigorated. "I remember now… it's fuzzy, but I remember enough, at least… Mor- I mean, the god of dreams."

"You mean M-"

"Don't say it!" Annabeth snapped instantly, cutting her off. "He told me not to… I think. Or something. And he said he worked for… something to do with rebirth. Or false? I can't remember."

"Try," Jason urged, but Annabeth shook her head.

"No, I just can't. It's like it's been blocked in my head. But there was something…" she glanced at him with narrowed eyes. "Jason, he said stuff about _you._ Stuff I can actually recall. He said you were angry, and that you weren't telling me everything. If you're hiding something, I want in. Especially as it seems that everyone knows more about me than I do myself these days."

Jason's eyes turned dark. "Er… I don't know what he meant."

Clarisse snorted. "Wow, convincing."

"I can't…"

"Jason." Annabeth said firmly. "Tell me."

"I…" Jason gulped. "Look, you already know!"

"Obviously we don't, or you wouldn't be hiding something, punk." Clarisse snapped.

"Okay!" Jason yelled. "Fine! I had a freaking dream, okay? Before we left camp. Percy and Piper are together!"

"We already knew she was with Percy," Annabeth said hesitantly.

"No! I mean, they're dating! They're going out. She's left me, and he's left you, and it's over. So, yeah, finding them wasn't my only motive for coming here. So what? I'm sick of Percy Jackson, you know? Ryan didn't completely charm me into helping him hunt him down and ruin him. I _wanted_ to do it, partly, okay? Because I'm that sick. And maybe I want to see her again because of that, for whatever reason. Maybe I'm masochistic. But I just have to do it."

"They're together?" Annabeth whispered, suddenly as deflated as if she was waking up all over again.

Even Clarisse was momentarily silent. "Look… It could have just been a dream. Or someone messing with your head, Jason. I don't believe Prissy would do that."

"He could have done," Annabeth murmured, in a trance. "If he felt really betrayed, or maybe he was bewitched by Aphrodite and Eros or someone else altogether. I don't know, but I'm still going to find him. You're right… I mean, I'm not going to ditch him just because he doesn't like me that way anymore."

"You're okay with that?" Jason said disbelievingly.

"No! Of course I'm not… I don't know? Oh, gods, things are messed up…" she muttered. "Okay, focus. We need to find them."

 **Olympus**

"They know?" asked the woman sitting at the table, brown hair tumbling over her shoulders in an unusual fashion, dark eyes flashing, arrogant, pallid features as immoveable as stone. "How could they possibly know? Someone-" she fondled the handle of a bronze dagger. "-is not playing this game fairly."

Her eyes flashed momentarily red. "And I do not like people who do not play fair. And eye for an eye. I suppose I shall have to play dirty, too."

 **So, yaaas. THE 750** **TH** **REVIEWER WILL GET A ONE-SHOT FIC TO THEIR SPECIFICATIONS! (AS LONG AS THEY ARE NOT A GUEST). (It has to be either PJO, Harry Potter, or a crossover between the two. Nothing M-rated or slash, and it has to be an actual story, not a songfic. If the 750** **th** **person is a guest, then the next member to review will win the prize.**

 **Please review :)**


	35. Chapter 35

**Hey! So, um… yet again I owe you an apology for not updating recently.**

 **I just got a lot of new books, and I've been caught up reading them, and things kind of escalated… also, the last lot of chapters are a lot harder to write than the first few, it turns out…**

 **If you like this story (and I'm hoping you do if you've made it to this chapter) it would be great if you could check out this new thing I'm starting – Everything We Had, a regular Harry Potter fanfic about Hugo Weasley, with Dramione and quite a lot of sadness.**

 **Also, if there is anyone out there who has read the Ingo series by Helen Dunmore (you should, they're brilliant) I'm doing a fic on that, too, called Remembering Reality.**

 _ **Also, just a reminder that the 750**_ _ **TH**_ _ **REVIEWER WILL GET A ONE-SHOT FIC TO THEIR SPECIFICATIONS!**_

 _ **Rules:**_

 _ **Nothing rated M, or suggestive themes, although it can be couple fluff even if it's slash.**_

 _ **Has to be Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or a crossover between the two.**_

 _ **An actual story, not a songfic or anything like that.**_

 _ **Also, I'm sorry, but if the 750**_ _ **th**_ _ **person is a guest then it will go to the next member for the simple reason that they will have to tell me what they want the fic to be, and if I announce the winner is ThisIsAnExample (guest) then I will quite likely have several different guests asking me for stories under the same name.**_

 _ **The person will have five days to message me or review again and tell me what fic they would like before it goes to the next person.**_

 **Nico**

Nico was not a fan of water in general.

A beach vacation was his idea of how not to spend a holiday. Going _into the sea_ was bad enough, but riding a creepy horse-fish thing halfway across the world? That was, to put it simply, torture. So it was with a feeling of relief that he finally caught sight of land in the distance.

Percy's hippocampus sped towards the shore, somersaulting in glee, before flipping in the air and landing back in the water with a crash, tiny glittering diamonds of liquid flying of its skin as it sped back towards the group.

Nico was still unimpressed.

After the nightmare of the last months, he was thinking at this point the coffin-shaped beds in the Hades cabin at camp should have been made with lids on them. He would crawl inside one and never come back out if he could. Vampires really did have the right idea. The only water-related thing they ever went near was blood.

It was then that he noticed Percy jumping off his hippocampus and sliding into the water without a splash. Piper was swinging her legs around like she was preparing to jump, too, and Frank had turned into some weird kind of giant flat fish thing that was floating on the surface of the water… at least, Nico hoped that was him.

"What are you doing?" he called, sharing a glance of apprehension with Hazel.

"The hippocampi can't go any further in!" Percy yelled back. "We're going to have to swim!"

Nico groaned.

 **Harry**

The school gossip system was in turmoil.

Harry was fairly certain that, even in his fourth and fifth years, things had never got this far. Headed by Lavender Brown, rumours were sweeping through the school about Professor Jackson's real whereabouts – the usual two-day taboo period was over, and now people were starting to speculate.

Harry heard several fourth year girls squeezed together in a huddle at the back of the library, whispering feverishly with Luna, who appeared to be trying to convince them that he had been taken by some rabid Crumple-Horned Snorkack cross-species and spirited away to the distant land of Dibblesdale, which apparently only appeared every other Tuesday and caused the Northern Lights.

Even Hermione had briefly given up opting out of Harry's company for as limited interaction with Ron as possible and had dragged him into a deserted classroom to discuss things.

"It is rather odd, though," she mused. "If he was doing something for McGonagall, for example, then surely she would have some plausible excuse for him being missing, so we can assume it wasn't planned- or if it was, then the Order and the Ministry didn't know… maybe he's some sort of spy? But then he wouldn't have caused such a fuss when he left… he'd have covered it up somehow… I don't think this can have been planned at all, actually, unless he wanted people to speculate, but I don't see why that can have been…"

Harry's fingers were crossed rigidly in his lap as he stared determinedly downwards. "Look- I've got to go find Ginny," he said eventually, knowing that if she kept going he would let something slip, and he didn't want that to happen. "We've got the match with Slytherin tonight… last one of the year… need to talk strategy…"

Hermione pushed her bushy hair out of her face, eyebrows curved downwards in frustration, lips pursed. "You did that this morning, Harry. But if you want to go, I won't stop you."

Biting his lips shut, Harry headed across the floor and out of the door.

It seemed he couldn't do anything correctly lately, and he had no idea if he'd dreamed the encounter with Jackson or not.

Malfoy wasn't commentating this time.

Harry had gone through the whole day without talking to Hermione again- he felt guilty more than anything- but by the time he walked out onto the pitch, he felt in the mindset for the game, although his muscles couldn't stop tensing, his old competitiveness coming back into play.

Draco Malfoy wasn't on the team- he hadn't been chosen as captain, and due to his newfound unpopularity, he hadn't been picked for the team either- so it was a surprise to Harry not to see him at the commentator's stand as he had been for Harry's last two games. He wondered where he was, briefly, noting that Luna Lovegood was once again holding the microphone.

Harry was shaken out of his reverie by the severe sound of Madam Hooch's whistle. She marched forwards stiffly, mounting her broom.

Harry moved forward and shook the Slytherin captain's hand- a brutal seventh year called Taurus Eldwyn, sometimes nicknamed the Bull, to Harry's derision.

He clambered onto his Firebolt- it was the one Sirius had given to him, picked up a few streets down from Privet Drive from where he'd dropped it when the Death Eaters had attacked. He wasn't about to lose the last thing he had left that his godfather had given him, aside from Grimmauld Place.

The whistle went again, and Harry shot up into the air, revelling in the feeling of the wind whipping through his hair. He looped a couple of times just for fun, then went higher into the air, eyes narrowed for a glimpse of the Snitch.

This would be his last game at Hogwarts, and he was going to win it.

Down below, a wiry Slytherin girl ducked under the tail end of Demelza Robins's broom and took a rather desperate shot at the Gryffindor hoops, the ball slipping from her fingers and flying solidly towards Ron's outstretched hands. There was a collective groan from the Slytherin stands as the Quaffle hurtled back out onto the pitch, caught straight away by another Gryffindor and fed back up the other way. Harry vaguely heard Luna's voice drifting up him… "Ron Weasley saves the Quaffle again… oh dear, I think that Slytherin might have been Imperiused… he appears to be trying to imitate a Dwatbringer, or perhaps it's just a clever ruse…"

As Harry watched, laughing slightly, he suddenly realised that perhaps it was unfair that he was the one with a Firebolt- the Chasers had far more need of a good broom- but the thought immediately left his mind as something flashed in the corner of his vision.

He jerked his head to the left, subtly repositioning his broom so as not to draw attention… yes, there was the Snitch, fluttering its tiny wings around the very bottom of the Slytherin goalposts… he immediately went into a dive, hurtling under Ritchie Coote's outstretched arms and speeding towards the Slytherin Keeper… he heard a whoosh of air, and then the Slytherin Seeker, who'd been hanging around by the safety of his own goal, noticed from over five metres ahead and streaked downwards at an almost vertical angle.

Harry tuned the roaring of the crowds out and concentrated on bending as low over his broom as possible- he was catching up - he was almost there- the Slytherin would win…

And then a well-aimed Bludger flew straight past Harry's left ear and skimmed the Slytherin's robes. He gave a girlish shriek, flailed his arms, and fell off his broom just as Harry zoomed past him, reaching the Snitch, then promptly dropped level with the falling Slytherin and hauled him onto the Firebolt.

They slowly sank to the ground, the Snitch's wings beating feebly in Harry's hand, and then the Gryffindors went wild.


	36. Chapter 36

**Hey! I'm back again! I would love it if you could check out any of my other fics-**

 **Everything We Had (HP)**

 **Blank Mind (TMR)**

 **As Long As We're Together (PJO)**

 **Demigods or Magicians (PJO/ Kane Chronicles)**

 **This Bloody Maze (TMR)**

 **Remembering Reality (Ingo)**

 **The Rising of Tartarus (PJO)**

 **Trouble In Paradise (TMR)**

 **I am also open as a beta reader for a large variety of different books including PJO, HP, TMR, THG, Divergent, Septimus Heap, His Dark Materials and quite a lot more, so if you are looking for a beta reader, go to my profile and check if I can beta for your category, because I would love to help :)**

 **Percy**

It had to be said that Long Island was not unattractive.

Over the years, Percy had spent a lot of time just sitting on the beaches near Camp Half-Blood, or at the top of the hills, just talking with friends or just by himself. But, as he emerged from the glistening waves with not a drop of water on him, clothes dirty with grime and brows furrowed slightly, he wasn't taking in any of the picturesque scene before him.

For one thing, he now had proof he was crazy. He'd just ditched his job and his new life to come back to the place that had betrayed him; he'd left without a moment's notice just at the brief hope his ex-girlfriend would still be here.

Yes, he knew now that Annabeth hadn't really cheated on him- he'd known for a while, really, deep down; it just wasn't the type of thing she'd ever do- but that didn't suddenly make him willing to throw himself into her arms once more and make up while crowds of happy campers cheered and unicorns spewed rainbows and candy.

Just because he was loyal didn't mean he was stupid. And, knowing what he knew now about the wizarding world, he didn't really think he could go back to way things were before again.

Percy was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice his friends coming up behind him with sad expressions on their faces as they gazed at the Greek camp. A small amount of water gathered in the corner of Piper's eye; she flicked it away almost absentmindedly.

Finally, Frank cleared his throat. "I, uh, guess we should go?" he asked nervously.

"Yeah," Percy breathed. "I guess… I guess we should."

He fell into step awkwardly beside Nico. The son of Hades's eyes were pitch black as usual, a million unknown moods swirling around inside.

"You know she loved you, don't you?" he asked abruptly.

Percy looked at him, as startled as a young deer caught in the headlights.

"Annabeth," Nico continued, a wry smile playing around his lips momentarily. "She never would have betrayed you willingly, and whatever she feels for you now, she did love you. Any idiot could see that."

Percy blinked, slowly. "When did you so… wise on relationships?"

Nico rolled his eyes. "Just because I'm the son of a 'creepy shadow-dude', as you used to say, doesn't mean I'm stupid."

"No," Percy murmured. "I'm starting to think that's true."

Almost before he knew it, they were standing in the middle of the strawberry fields looking towards the Big House. In the distance, Percy could vaguely hear someone screaming… a relatively normal occurrence here.

Hazel looked vaguely unsettled. "I never liked being here," she mused. "So many precious metals and gems. I have to concentrate to keep the entire Zeus cabin from flying at me."

Frank was examining what looked suspiciously like a vampire bite, but was probably a scratch from the thorns, on the back of his hand. "I never had that feeling… but I think I can imagine it. Which says a lot about my life."

Piper looked a little impatient. "Can we keep going?" she said, her voice uncharacteristically terse.

Obligingly, Percy began walking again, his heart banging against his ribs. Every inch of him felt wired to explode with the pain of maintaining a slow, steady pace through the field. Life was just not fair when you were an ADHD kid in… uh, his situation right now.

After what seemed like a particularly long eternity filled with a plethora of nettles, they were standing only about a hundred yards from the Big House. Frank swallowed. "We should, uh, keep going?" he asked.

"Yeah." Percy snapped out of his daze. "Okay. Let's go see Chiron."

It was Hazel that eventually raised her hand and pushed open the old, creaking door, taking the first step inside the Big House. Percy followed her, the smell hitting him like a ton of bricks- the musty, slightly damp air, mixed with pleasant odour of beeswax on the dark furniture and a light mix of strawberries drifting in from outside. It smelt, in short, like home.

"Let's, uh, go to Chiron's study?" Percy suggested.

There was an unspoken nod of acquiescence, and Percy turned to the right, heading down a short corridor and pushing open the door, slightly ajar. "Chiron?"

There was no one inside. Feeling a slight air of disappointment, Percy moved back outside, carefully positioning the door as it had been, when there was a crash from the opposite side of the house and a very familiar figure walked out of the infirmary door.

"I didn't mean to! Festus hasn't crashlanded in ages!"

"Of course." A second person followed the first out the door. "You just keep on thinking that-"

They broke off mid-sentence.

"Oh, my gods." whispered Piper. "Leo? And…"

"Calypso," Percy answered, his voice shaking. "Calypso."

 **Draco**

Draco Malfoy was in the Slytherin common room, but his head was somewhere else entirely. Knowing that there was no way the team the Slytherins had put together this year would win, Draco, in effortless Gryffindor style, had not gone to the match.

Okay, maybe there was another reason for his absence from the Quidditch pitch, but that was the story he was sticking to, if anyone bothered to ask.

The onetime pureblood prince was trying, rather desperately, to contact his mother.

With Lucius Malfoy in Azkaban and Narcissa in a fragile state of mental health – she hadn't done anything more exerting than escorting Draco to the station since the war – Draco rarely saw either of them any more… and maybe, just maybe, he wanted to talk to someone from home.

Looking around the drawing room of Malfoy Manor, Draco felt a pang of homesickness so acute that it actually hurt.

"Mother?" he called. "Mother! Narcissa!"

No one answered- in fact, there was no sound except for the slow crackling of the flames, and the ticking of the clock on the mantelpiece, counting down Draco's few precious minutes left. He should have had nearly the whole match, but a couple of fifth year girls had been hanging round giggling, and he still had enough dignity left not to go down on his knees and stick his head into the fire in front of them. Also, he didn't want anyone realising he wasn't at the match, although technically he supposed there weren't any rules against it.

"Mother!" Draco tried one last time, but when no one responded after five minutes, he regretfully gave up and took his head away.

Maybe he could try to find Astoria. She was possibly the only person left alive who actually cared what happened to him any more. Not that he could blame everyone else for not caring.

The main difference between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins appeared to be that the Gryffindors had better luck.

The wall flickered and a crowd of sullen people walked through, Pansy, Daphne, and Tracy at the head of them, the latter two girls watching Pansy as she flicked her hair over her shoulder and flirted with the Slytherin Keeper with a kind of vicious possessiveness most often seen in angry dragons. The boy in question was looking at her, open-mouthed, as if the sun rested on her slim shoulders.

Draco knew the feeling. It had once been directed at him.

Pansy glanced over at him, standing frozen behind a plush green velvet sofa, and sneered, marching over to the couch and flouncing onto it, her crowd of fickle followers stemming out behind her in a kind of 'v'.

Draco got up and moved away, Pansy's dark, imperious eyes following him as he went. He heard a couple of boys snigger to each other, most likely directed at him.

It was odd, though, that he couldn't find it in himself to care at all.

 **I know it was, again, a bit of a filler, but next chapter won't be! I promise!**

 **Please review and tell me what you thought! Also, my poll 'Which PJO/HOO character is your favourite?' will be closing soon! Don't forget to go to my profile and vote!**

 **Did that sound pushy? I hope that didn't.**

 **Love all things fandom-y and awesome, and if you are a TMR fan, love Newt, and if you aren't, love him anyway, and no one will ever speak of page 250 ever again.**

 **~thaliatheawesome**

 **HELLO, PEOPLE! IF YOU THOUGHT I'D ALREADY POSTED THIS CHAPTER, YOU WERE RIGHT, BUT I HAVE WRITTEN ANOTHER PJO FANFIC CALLED 'LET YOU GO'. Percabeth. Very angsty. Deaths. Sorry for interrupting your** **day.**


	37. Chapter 37

**Hey, guys! So, if you didn't notice the massive A/N I put in bold at the bottom of last chapter, or read it before it was added, I have written a new one shot that I think you might like. It's called 'Let You Go' and it's very angsty Percabeth. It would be great if you read it!**

 **Also, we are drawing pretty close to the 750** **th** **reviewer (YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAYAYYYYYYY) and you might remember that I promised to give them not only the customary shoutout but also A ONESHOT FIC TO THEIR SPECIFICATIONS!**

 **Guidelines:**

 **Everything has to comply with the site guidelines as well.**

 **No songfics, or poems, or anything. An actual story.**

 **Nothing rated M.**

 **Has to be PJO, Harry Potter, or a cross over between the two.**

 **I am very sorry, but as I mentioned previously, I will only do it for people with accounts. If the 750** **th** **reviewer is a guest, then it will go to the next non-guest to review. I will PM you when I have found out who it is. If you message me back within three days, I will write the fic for you and post it :)**

 **You can request anything that is within these rules- any main character, any genre, any weird plot twists and any pairings, as long as they are not totally strange. And by this I mean VERY weird, like Hagrid, Dumbledore, Myrtle and Snape or something.**

 **Anyway! Story!**

 **Also, to AutumnLeaves03 : TMR is The Maze Runner, and if you haven't read it, it is epicly awesome. Also, Newt is epicly awesome.**

 **Annabeth: DO THE STORY!**

 **Third person**

Piper ran forwards with a cry of astonishment, flinging herself at Leo, tears running down her cheeks. The slightly squashed son of Hephaestus patted her on the back awkwardly, smudges of some mysterious black substance coating his fingers as per usual. His tool belt was still hung around his waist. He didn't look as if he'd aged a day since Percy had last seen him, in a bad quality Iris Message on the back of his dragon Festus, screaming he was alive and with Calypso before the connection flickered out and he didn't bother contacting them again to actually _explain_ precisely how he wasn't dead. Of course, an irate Hazel messaged him again and wrangled the truth from him, but Percy hadn't been with her at the time.

Piper finally released Leo. "How did you get here? When? And where's Festus? Do you have any idea-"

"Whoa, Beauty Queen," Leo said mischievously, hands tapping against his pockets with all his old energy. "Give a man a chance to breathe. "I got here literally ten minutes ago, when your mother showed up and yanked us out of our machine shop in Europe, so I kind of figured you'd know what was up."

Piper blinked. "You… you're kidding, right? My _mother? Aphrodite?_ Don't tell me she had something to do with this whole mess."

Leo raised his hands, helpless. "Just telling you what I know. And we used Festus to get here. He's packed up over there with Calypso… wait, Calypso?"

But she didn't answer, because she was staring at Percy with such a look of bitterness and wistful longing that Leo's hands, waving around still in the air in an attempt to catch up with his fast-paced words, fell limply to his side. "Hey- guys?"

They finally tore their gaze away, but only for Calypso to glance at Leo apologetically and Percy to blink a couple of times.

"I forgot about you," he said eventually. "I abandoned you in the end, and I am sorry, but I think you should be as well. We're both at fault here."

Calypso's gaze held an angry note now. "Why do I have something to apologise to you for, Percy? I think you were the one that left me on Ogygia."

"First of all," he said. "I extracted a pardon for you from the gods. They just didn't keep their damned promise, once again, although I suppose I should have seen that coming or at least checked up on you. But, Calypso… you cursed my girlfriend. You cursed Annabeth for my own mistakes."

She looked shocked. "I did," she whispered eventually, and Leo and Piper and Hazel and Frank and Nico all seemed to recede and disappear from the room. "When I was bitter and lonely and sad. But nothing can have come of it?"

"You're wrong," Percy murmured. "We fell into Tartarus, and the arai attacked us. Annabeth thought I'd abandoned her. She thought I'd left her, and she couldn't see I was there. It was horrible."

Calypso's mouth was moving now, but the words took a while to come. "I didn't know," she said, her voice wavering but strong. "I was foolish, and I didn't think. I'm sorry, Percy. I mean it."

Percy gave a small, quick, genuine smile. "I don't expect us to forgive each other, but… friends?"

Calypso smiled for real now. "Yes."

They embraced each other quickly, before quickly letting go as if finally remembering there were other people in the room.

"Right," Leo said eventually. "I think… we need to talk. You need to tell us what's freaking going on."

 **Harry**

At some point during the Gryffindor party, Harry broke away from a raucous crowd of sixth year boys pouring Lucozade (how did they even get it?) all over their heads and yelling at every good looking girl that walked past, and slipped out of the portrait hole to go and find Hermione.

After a long and dramatic two-second search, he crashed into her just next to the Fat lady and sent both of them flying, Hermione grabbing onto Harry's Quidditch robes as she fought for balance and dragging him down onto the floor.

He landed on her bag. It hurt.

Rubbing his side from the enormous amount of books she habitually carried around, Harry scrambled up inelegantly and brushed his robes off.

"Where were you going in such a hurry?" he asked. "And- is that my cloak?"

His familiar silvery Invisibility Cloak was falling out in graceful folds from Hermione's open bag. She pushed back her bushy hair and took it out properly. "Yes, Harry, it is, and now you're here I suppose you should come with me. I'm going to break into Professor Jackson's rooms."

 **Hermione, doing that is really taking curiosity a little too far… I'm sorry.**

 **Love the unicorns of death, eat chocolate and generally read far too much fanfiction. Also, reviewing would be good too :)**

 **~thaliatheawesome**


	38. Chapter 38

**Hey, guys! So, I just uploaded another Percabeth death fix, which I think is better than Let You Go. It's called Falling. Please read?**

 **Harry**

Harry's jaw went slack as he stared at Hermione in a confused attempt to comprehend what she was saying. Of course she didn't mean it. Hermione would never dream of trying to break into a teacher's rooms, and she'd been planning to do it _on her own._

On the other hand, it did make… perfect sense.

Unless that was just the Firewhiskey talking.

But, whatever it was, Harry knew that now she had proposed the idea, he wouldn't be able to stop thinking about it. He'd eventually do it, so he may as well do it now, with Hermione and half the school library on his side, than on his own.

"Okay," he said decisively. "I'm in."

Hermione smiled. "Good."

They made their way to the wing where most of the teachers – with the exception of McGonagall, Trelawney and a few other select individuals – lived, throwing on the Cloak once they were out of the main corridors where their presence would have been less conspicuous.

Hermione carefully drew out her wand as they rounded the corner, coming across a huge barred door.

"Revelio magia!" she whispered, moving her wand in a strange slashing movement in front of her.

Harry imagined, with a giggle of hysteria, how they would look at that moment- a disembodied hand floating in midair, talking to a door.

The door in question shone with an amber light, the keyhole flashing a brilliant emerald colour not dissimilar to Harry's eyes. Hermione watched with bated breath, although Harry wasn't sure what she was doing.

"What does it mean?" he hissed after a few moments silence.

Hermione turned her head to look at him, their noses almost banging into each other under the confines of the Cloak. "It means," she said gleefully. "That the teachers are idiots. They enchanted this keyhole to repel intruders, but not the whole door."

"Diffindo!" she cried, marking a large, crooked rectangle in the door. She gave it a gentle push, and it fell outwards, revealing a long corridor of more doors.

They clambered through, Harry having to squeeze his shoulder blades together to fit through the small gap.

Hermione turned back when they were in the new corridor, repairing the door easily and continuing down the corridor. Finally, they were by a door reading, _Professor P. Jackson,_ in ornate writing, although the background was simple.

"How do we get in?" Harry murmured.

Hermione gave him a look. "I'm fairly sure they imagined none of the students would be able to get past that door. It should just be… alohomora!" she cried. The door swung open easily.

Harry swallowed, then stepped inside.

They were standing in a long room, a screen at the end showing the skyline of some major city at night, thousands of blinking lights illuminating the sight. There were several chairs and a sofa positioned around it, and in the center of the room was a massive orb of water hanging in the air for no apparent reason. Every so often, it would shimmer with a blue-green light.

Hermione yanked the Invisibility Cloak off and stuffed the third Hallow in her bag casually. "This room…"

Harry nodded. "It's incredible. Look at the ceiling, as well. I swear it's all the constellations."

Hermione nodded. "It's just like how the Great Hall ceiling looked, that night we stayed in there when Sirius came and attacked the Fat Lady and Peter Pettigrew."

"I never noticed," Harry answered.

"That is because you are an unobservant boy."

They continued through a high archway, noting a small, uncluttered room that looked like a bedroom but that neither wanted to go into, a small bathroom – they avoided that as well – and then, finally, a study.

Harry pushed back the door quietly.

It looked like a typical teacher's room at some posh private school, with dark antique tables and filing cabinets and papers scattered all over the desk. Hermione glanced through them, but saw nothing of importance – just some class tests and general paraphernalia.

Regretfully, she headed back into the main room. "There's nowhere else, and we've checked the whole place for something out of the ordinary."

Harry nodded. "Except for that water thingy."

Hermione gave an exasperated sigh. "Harry, we've been over this. It could just be some nice sculpture? Wizards are weird."

Harry frowned. "No, it's weird. And did you notice how there was barely any personal stuff around, even in the bedroom? That was strange."

Hermione rolled her eyes. "You're reading too much between the lines. Maybe he just didn't want to bring much stuff with him."

"No…" Harry insisted. He stretched out a finger to touch the water- and to his surprise, it didn't feel wet at all.

"Harry, don't!" came Hermione's panicked cry. "You don't know what it-"

Harry yanked his hand away and it began to prickle, almost as if the water was filled with an electric charge. A low pitched sound filled the air, making both of them grab their ears.

He watched in disbelief as the giant, revolving sphere fell apart.

 **Hermione**

Hermione Granger was accustomed to strange sights.

After all, at the age of five, she'd somehow dyed all her father's shirts pink in a fit of anger. When she was seven, she'd been so against going to her swimming lesson that she'd vanished all the water, not only in the pool, but also in the entire leisure centre. And again, when she was ten, the accident which had somehow stopped the entire London Eye from working until she was finally out of the city – an event attributed to a terrorist attack.

Not mention the series of disasters she'd been involved in from the moment she arrived at Hogwarts.

However, it still came as a shock to her when the spherical ball of water cracked into two shelled pieces and smashed through the floor beneath, creating a hole in the middle of the floor.

Harry, caught off balance, made a wild grab for Hermione's robes and ended up dragging both of them down through the floor.

Once they managed to untangle each other, Hermione pulled out her wand and screeched, "Lumos!"

Harry did the same rather sheepishly, and soon they could see what they'd landed themselves in.

A giant arena.

The floor was completely covered in sand, At one end hung a rack of lethal looking weapons- sword and daggers and spears and maces and machetes and far more, at the other a series of metal dummies not unlike the stuff Hermione had seen in the 'Hunger Games' films.

What really set her off, however, was the giant library that covered the entirety of the Eastern wall and receded into the darkness beyond that.

"What is this place?" she whispered.

 **So, um, I'm not sure about this chapter. But I thought it had some pretty nice bits in it, and it leaves a lot open for me to tie up with the next update, and I don't like to leave you guys waiting, so I thought I'd post it anyway.**

 **Reviews, as ever, are greatly appreciated.**

 **Love life, and never, under no circumstances, ever again mention the infamously hated page 250.**

 **This is, if you were planning to be attacked by a horde of rabid and grieving fangirls, you're heading along the right lines there.**

 **~thaliatheawesome**


	39. Chapter 39

**Hello :)**

 **The winner of the competition was… totallynotsuperman ! Thanks ford being really supportive and sticking with this story :)**

 **SORRY FOR UPLOADING THIS AGAIN, BUT THE ONESHOT I WROTE FOR totallynotsuperman HAS BEEN POSTED! PLEASE READ! :)**

 **I got a ton of reviews saying that you guys didn't really want Hermione to figure out who Percy really is, so I pose a question now:**

 **How many people do you want to know?**

 **Option A – the entire wizarding world finds out, about to have massive fight… and, well, stuff happens.**

 **Option B – just Harry, Draco, or a few select people find out – specify who.**

 **Option C – only Harry ever knows.**

 **Option D – Harry thinks he imagined it or gets Obliviated or something, the secret remains unknown.**

 **Annabeth**

"We have absolutely no leads!"

Annabeth felt like crying in frustration, snapping the traffic light pole she was currently clutching like it was a lifeline, hurling her dagger into the pavement, and generally dying.

A car whizzed by at twice the normal speed, playing 'Teenagers' by My Chemical Romance so loudly Annabeth briefly wondered whether her eardrums had burst from the short time she'd been exposed to it.

Next to her, Jason was slumped on a bench, staring vaguely into nothing, his fingers – inexplicably – tapping out something she recognised as the Cup Song, over and over.

Clarisse was just standing there, scaring off everyone within twenty feet of her.

"I'm gonna go for food," she said eventually, and Annabeth figured she had her, 'don't talk to me, I'm planning' face on that Percy always used to say she always got. After a moment's hesitation, Jason followed.

"Excuse me?" came a disapproving voice. Annabeth whirled around as the others headed away to see a woman wearing a scarf wrapped loosely around her neck, Tom Ford shades across her eyes and dark jeans – an odd combination, but it worked –with her hand tapping impatiently on her leather bag. "Some of us want to cross this road, young lady."

Blushing faintly, Annabeth stepped back and let the woman access the WAIT button. Her accent was strange – it didn't sound English or even American at all, with a sharp tinge to it, and a malevolent undertone.

Or, maybe, she was reading too much into things as per usual.

"Really, back in my day, girls your age would have been nicely married off and sitting away at home. Wouldn't you prefer that?"

"Er…" Annabeth wasn't really sure how to respond to a fairly young-looking stranger coming up to her and acting exactly like her grandmother. As in, Frederick Chase's mother, not Metis. As the latter had been swallowed by her one-time husband, Annabeth wasn't exactly sure how Metis would have acted towards her, but with the Greek gods' track record, she doubted it would have been sunny.

"You still haven't answered me, girl."

Annabeth snapped back into reality. "Right. Uh… I guess?"

"Then you are either an idiot, or lying. And I hope it's the second one, Annabeth Chase."

The daughter of Athena recoiled instinctively. "How do you know my name?" she snapped, hand going straight to her dagger. The only thing, in fact, that was stopping her pulling it out, was the fact she was still standing in a busy London street with hundreds of mortals, any number of which might be clear-sighted.

She looked around desperately for Clarisse and Jason, but they were almost out of sight- mere silhouettes in the midst of a crowd outside a bakery.

If she called, the chances were that they wouldn't even hear her.

"Who are you?" she hissed.

The woman finally took off her shades, revealing eyes as red as the darkest, most crimson blood. "Don't think I am not a friend, daughter of Athena. My quarrel is not with you, who have had the scales so grievously tipped against you." Her eyes flickered ominously towards the distant bakery.

This small gesture was not missed by Annabeth.

"You're the second mysterious Greek person who's appeared to me on this freaking quest. I'm getting tired of it. And, you are not going to hurt my friends," she snapped. "If you're a friend of mine, then tell me if Percy is really dating Piper or not."

The woman's eyes turned a radiant gold, a rich laugh pealing from her lips. "Do not think," she said with cold amusement, "That the son of Poseidon has stopped loving you."

She turned, and suddenly it was as if she had never been there before.

 **Third person**

"What is this place?" she whispered.

It was well known that Hermione was smart – more than smart. She had guided Harry Potter through his defeat of Voldemort with nothing more than her wits. She was allegedly the cleverest witch in her year. Yet she was completely baffled by the strange assortment of rooms in Professor Jackson's apartment.

"Are they- are they weapons? Why are they here? And why does he have all those books?"

She whirled around to face Harry, but he cut off her flow of words before she could really get the tirade going. _She couldn't find out. If anything, he had to keep the secret safe._

" _There would be a war if anyone ever found out," Jackson's words echoed around the shallow cavities of his skull. "You can't tell anyone, Harry. I mean it."_

"Hermione! There's nothing suspicious about having a lot of books, especially it you're a wizard. Don't you think you're reading too much into things here?" Harry bluffed, surprised at the argument he'd been able to pull from the top of his head.

She stared at him in disbelief, so surprised that she missed his guilty eyes flickering away from her gaze and coming back like a sheepish puppy wondering if it had been caught stealing food.

"Harry, there are _weapons_ in there. That is definitely not normal."

"In case you haven't noticed, this world isn't normal-" Harry took a deep, calming breath. "They could be family heirlooms, or just illusions, or maybe he was planning on doing something with them in class – some new spell like the sword-summoning thing?"

Hermione looked unconvinced, but Harry continued doggedly, "Besides, it could be some weird American thing. They do a lot more combat magic than us. Maybe it has to do with that. He could use that sword pretty well, right?"

Somehow, that won her over – for the moment, at least. She seemed to deflate a little. "Maybe you're right," she said unhappily.

"Yeah," Harry said, heart beating with wild relief. He hadn't been discovered – for the moment, at least. He glanced down at his watch – the Muggle one, not Fabian Prewett's. The disjointed little red letters read, 12:01.

He gave a small start as he processed the information. "Hermione, we've been here hours! It's past midnight! Filch is going to be around right now- we've got to-"

He choked around his words as no sound came from his mouth – he felt the silky feeling of fabric settling on his skin, and realised that Hermione had both cast the Silencio charm on the two of them and thrown the Cloak on. He crouched down a little so as to not let the Cloak flap around their ankles, glancing at her for confirmation.

She nodded, then suddenly her hand clenched down on his arm so hard he couldn't help but cry out – soundlessly, luckily, as he raised his eyes to what she'd seen.

Two small yellow lights glowed eerily at them from the shadows at the top of a set of stairs that had appeared where they'd come in.

It was Mrs Norris.

For a horrible moment, Harry held his breath so tightly he thought he would burst, not wanting to cause any unwarranted movement. Next to him, he felt Hermione doing the same, her hands still gripping the flesh of his arm with an iron cast.

Gently, when he could no longer take it, Harry exhaled. He turned his head very slightly in Hermione's direction as she jerked his arm very slightly.

She mouthed something intelligible.

 _What?_ he asked silently.

 _How – did – she – get – in – here?_ Hermione repeated.

Harry considered the question. they had definitely shut the door – that he remembered. He frowned, before replying, _No idea. Mrs Norris._

She gave a slight eye-roll, but was interrupted by the sound of a strange purring.

Mrs Norris purring didn't sound like a cat purring. It sounded like a particularly reluctant car engine sounded, on a snowy morning, when it hated the person who was attempting to drive it with vengeance for some reason.

At least, that was Harry's analogy.

But when it was happening right at your feet – that was bad.

Hermione's eyes widened with fright as she noticed Mrs Norris mere feet away – she frantically raised her wand and cast some kind of non-verbal spell straight at their feet.

Mrs Norris came closer, mewling softly with the tone of Darth Vader on a bad day.

She was half a foot away.

She was so close Harry was fairly sure he was going to die if he had to stand still any longer with Mrs Norris touching his ankles.

And then the strangest thing of the night happened – she passed straight through him, as if he was a ghost, as if he was nothing more than empty air or a spirit having an out-of-body experience.

His legs, beneath the Cloak, appeared to flicker like skeletal bones on an x-ray machine; he pulled the Cloak across so she couldn't see the rest of their bodies.

And then she was gone, with no sign she'd ever been there in the first place.

"Finite," murmured Hermione, and the strangeness dissipated, and Harry was left standing in a darkened room, feeling the weird exhilaration of not being caught by an evil car engine demon cat in a secret room full of books and polished weapons, intoxicated with Firewhiskey in the middle of the night.

 **Well, that wins the prize for thaliatheawesome's Most Random Ending Ever.**

 **While we are talking – uh, while I'm talking to myself and hoping people are reading -**

 **Please read my Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard story, A Prolonged Conversation. A oneshot but I will probably continue it, in actual fact.**

 **Anyway, thanks for reading. Please tell me which option you want, vote on my poll, review, and continue being awesome.**

 **If anyone's stuck with me this far, I love you. In a sis/bro way. Not a weird one.**

 **~thaliatheawesome**


	40. Chapter 40

**Um… so, okay. Hi?**

 ***ducks waiting for fruit to come flying at her from all directions***

 **So, the majority of you are either really mad by now that I haven't updated, or aren't actually reading this fic because you've forgotten it exists, or are reading it but skipped this A/N to read this terrible chapter.**

 **So, I actually do have a valid reason for being absent for so long with no warning (blame and writer's block) but no one really wants to listen to authors griping about their troubles on what are meant to be stories, so… yeah… this scrawny chapter you were promised a few weeks ago.**

 **Unfortunately… I have decided to attempt the Wattpad NaNoWriMo contest, and therefore for the rest of November updates will be much slower, going back to normal by December – THIS APPLIES TO ALL MY STORIES.**

 **Harry**

The non-tired feeling didn't last.

As they clambered into the portrait hole, Harry's eyelids were so heavy he wouldn't have been surprised if someone had surgically attached lead weights to them. His whole body ached. Hermione didn't look much better.

"It might… be a side-effect… of using that… spell…" she yawned, tripping over herself in a valiant attempt to stay upright.

"Yeah… what was it, anyway?" Harry asked sleepily.

"Makes you… no… substance…doesn't last…" she blinked fiercely. "G'night, Harry…"

"Night," Harry muttered. He watched, swaying on his feet, as Hermione stumbled up the stairs to the girls' dormitories, opening the door semi-quietly and disappearing.

"Had a nice time?"

Exhausted or not, Harry whirled around, taking his wand from his sleeve and pointing it in the direction of the voice.

Ron Weasley appeared from the shadows near the glowing embers of the blackened fireplace, an uncharacteristic scowl set firmly on his face. His eyes glinted in the dim, flickering light of the lanterns.

"Ron?" Harry said incredulously, blinking fast. "Why are you… uh, in here?"

He rolled his eyes. "It's my common room. And if you can go off in the middle of the night with my girlfriend without telling me, I think I'm allowed to sit here."

Harry felt his cheeks grow hot with a rush of clarity as he realised what his friend meant. "Ron, it wasn't-"

"Don't tell me it wasn't that," Ron hissed. "I'm not a complete idiot, you know. I think I can tell when my girlfriend is cheating on me with my best friend behind my back."

"You're not even dating her any more!" Harry burst out at last, exasperated beyond measure with his best friend.

It was, he realised a split second later, completely the wrong thing to say. Ron's face turned a shade of red darker than his hair; he stood there for a few moments as a variety of emotions spilled over his face – hate, anger, hurt – then turned on his heel and stormed back upstairs to the dormitories.

Harry would have followed him, but the argument had sapped all of the strength he had had left. The adrenaline faded away, replaced in the mists of his brain by the overwhelming exhaustion of before that seeped into every cavity of his brain and filled him with a kind of dull hopelessness.

He stumbled over to a sofa, eyes closing fast, and was asleep before his head hit the red cushioned seat.

 **Percy**

By the time they'd finished talking – well, mainly Percy – his throat felt raw, his head pounding with his own steady heartbeat from the stuffy air in the shadows of the Big House.

"Can we go outside?" Piper asked eventually, mirroring the thoughts he'd been having for near to half an hour now.

No one replied. Leo's head half-turned to him in a display of awkward deference, but then it whipped back as if he was embarrassed.

"Uh…" Percy coughed. "Sure."

He turned around, steps feeling flat-footed and dull. _Breathe._ They reached the faded door of the Big House, it squeaking on its hinges as they stepped out into the sun.

Instantly, Percy felt better. The brighter colours overloaded his retinae briefly, but it quickly faded back to normal. He took a deep breath, inhaling the clean, warm scent that carried up from the strawberry fields barely a hundred metres away. Camp Half-Blood seemed even smaller than he remembered, the incomprehensibly huge place he'd first entered at the age of twelve buried so deep in the depths of his memory, he could barely believe it had been reality back then.

Everything changed over time, he mused dispassionately. The world. Places. People. He thought about his friends – Piper, who used to be so relaxed, now barely speaking, driven out of her usual state of mind by worry and desperation. Annabeth herself – what had even gone on there?

"Um, Percy?"

He whirled around, blinking several times as if in a trance. Spots glowed inside his eyelids. "…sorry."

"Where are you going?" Nico rolled his eyes, gesturing towards the rest of the group, who were suddenly several metres away. Sheepishly, Percy realised he'd been wandering further and further away from the Big House.

No one said anything for a few moments. Then Piper jumped down off the porch and came to stand beside Percy. "We need to Iris-message Annabeth. It's the only plan we've got. We don't know where they are, and we don't know what happened to you jackass 'brother', and…yeah. We have to talk to them."

Percy nodded slowly, a million different emotions running through his head. Nervousness. Uncertainty. Excitement. Sadness… she'd been drugged into Ryan's plan, and he'd automatically assumed she'd cheated on him. Some boyfriend he was… not even boyfriend… he really didn't know what Annabeth was to him anymore. If their relationship had been complicated after the Giant War, it would be even worse now.

"Okay." His eyes hardened. "Who's got a drachma? We're breaking into my cabin."

"Why?" Hazel asked curiously, and Percy realised with a start she hadn't been here since just after the war, and even then only for a few days. Gods… she'd never seen his cabin, or anything.

"I have a fountain for making IMs… well, I used to. If Ryan destroyed that I will murder him."

"I think," Leo said speculatively. "Annabeth might have already done that. But I guess we should check."

 **Yes, I know, it was a pretty terrible chapter, but… stuff will happen next update.**

 **~thaliatheawesome**


	41. Chapter 41

**Ah… right. I will skip the excuses (if you really want to know, first there was no WiFi where I was and then I spent five days delaying this. Sorry :/ that** _ **really**_ **doesn't cover it, but sorry again).**

 **Oh, and, um, check out my new story Intrinsic Black, which will be my major project once this is over. And there are ONLY ABOUT FIVE CHAPTERS LEFT! (I think).**

 **Although I guess if you've continued reading this far then you'll just want to read the update.**

 **Hazel**

Hazel had outgrown the 1940s. Really, she had. So what, if sometimes she forgot which century she was in? If not normal, it was… to be expected.

She hadn't been in the mortal world since their last quests before the war, and she hadn't exactly been on a 21st century appreciation tour then. Back at Camp Jupiter, they had excellent builders, but the emphasis went on _Roman._ Even though the ideas for the buildings themselves were modern, the colleges, houses and shops were almost all built like they had been back in the days when people actually believed in the gods and the Roman Empire had still been a thing.

So she could be forgiven for being a little surprised at the buildings in Camp Half-Blood.

A lot of them did come close to fitting in with Hazel's idea of normal, and she did remember others from her brief stay there before, but a lot were totally new and weird. The Hephaestus and Hermes cabins had both been extended due to a massive influx of new campers and demigods – Hephaestus now sported a massive metal construction with mini flamethrowers by the doors designed like dragon heads, reminding her of something Piper and Annabeth had mentioned long ago after they went on a quest in Rome; Hermes had a large stone extension with glass doors and balconies that she was completely unfamiliar with.

Overall, pretty disorienting. She was relieved when they reached Cabin 3, the second cabin in the line of 'male god' cabins. Well, she was pretty sure about that, at least – the entire structure of the Greek camp still seemed a little illogical to her.

Percy hefted his shoulder against the door to his old cabin, and to his evident surprise, it swung open easily. Hazel hung back with the others as he peered inside, hand on the pocket where she knew he always kept his weapons. She waited with a kind of tension and apprehension born only from experience in battle. In front of her and to her sides, Piper, Nico, Frank, Leo and even Calypso had also subconsciously adopted similar positions, watching Percy intently.

Moments passed. Nothing happened.

Percy remained frozen in the same position for several minutes. Uncomfortable, Hazel began to fidget with her nails, digging out the grime from underneath them that came from life in the Twelfth Legion Fulminata. Even centurions weren't exempt from the worst duties – and there were plenty of those.

Finally, her friend stuck his head back around the door with a strange, almost lost expression on his face. "It's fine. No one in there."

Hazel didn't know about her friends, but she for one couldn't get inside fast enough, irrationally terrified someone would notice her. It seemed a miracle no one had so far, but she guessed almost all of the campers would be at their daily activities.

Percy gestured for them to come inside. Nico walked in almost absentmindedly; the others soon followed, Calypso looking around interestedly as if she was trying to hide it but was failing by a long shot.

Hazel hung back.

Before Leo's crazy killing-Gaia-and-possibly-possibly-not-imploding-myself-too death stunt, she had been fairly confident in her title as the only one of her friends who had ever been actually _dead._ Thalia had turned into a tree; Nico had been locked out of time; Hazel had died.

Her advice: do something good with your life and go to Elysium. Because Asphodel sucked majorly. In fact, if it had been possible to die once you were already dead, Hazel was pretty sure she would've done within her first year down there out of sheer _boredom._

Anyway, once Nico had rescued her and she'd got onto their first quest and she went to Alaska again, it had felt a little like she was violating someone's grave, digging for treasure – except that had been the burial ground of her past self. Hazel, but not Hazel – the girl who would probably have ended up with Leo if she'd survived. The girl who had kissed Sammy Valdez. And this? This felt the same way – like by going inside she would disturb a sleeping ghost… of what? Vengeance? Hatred?

"Hazel!"

She looked up, startled, to see Piper beckoning her inside.

"Oh…" she moved forward uneasily, each step dragging her forward but at the same time pulling her back.

Percy's cabin was darker than she'd imagined.

That was the first impression she got – darkness. But as her eyes began to adjust to the light, she noticed other things… the gleam of the faint light off shapes hanging from the ceiling; the smoothed over beds that almost all looked unused and the almost imperceptibly quiet sound of rushing water that, however much she craned her neck, she couldn't find a source for.

Percy was standing in the corner of the room, the others beginning to cluster around him.

Hazel hurried over, all thoughts of malevolent spirits forgotten. He was leaning over a fountain, a strange shifting blue-green light making his face seem ghostly and pale, almost unreal. The shadows hung at odd angles over his features, as if painted with a watercolour brush dripping grey all over the skin, smudging and blurring into the original colours.

There was a pile of drachmae just next to the basin, dull gold and inanimate, but when Hazel looked more closely she realised something was not right – their sheen was slightly coated in some kind of strange tarry substance that made the surface seem slightly brown in places.

In front of her, Nico leaned over and plucked one out of the pile.

"Definitely Godsbane," he said grimly.

"Percy, your brother is a first class asshole," Leo noted.

Nico dropped the coin into Percy's hand. Where the pale light caused a rainbow to shimmer across the surface of the water, Percy let the drachma fall.

"Annabeth Chase, um… probably somewhere in England?"

For a few horrible seconds, nothing happened.

Then an image appeared, flickering and disrupted – almost exactly the same as their original IM.

It showed, as far as Hazel could tell, a busy street – there was a blonde slumped against metal railings, and although the image was fuzzy and indistinct, she was almost certain it was-

"Annabeth!" she said without thinking.

The figure whirled around, dagger held out in front of her in a classic fighting position, confirming Hazel's suspicions.

She blinked – disbelieving – then lowered the weapon. "What – _Hazel? Fr-"_

Her mouth kept moving, but a horn blared from the fuzzy image, making her already blurred words impossible to hear.

"-ercy?" she finished.

Hazel had always been absolutely terrible at lip-reading, but even she could take a wild guess at what that had been.

"Annabeth, where are you?" Piper said urgently.

"In London… where…" the image buckled and swayed like a fairground mirror. "…you? We've been looking for _days!"_

Behind Leo, Calypso has been staring at the image with undisguised shock for the entirety of the interaction, but now she spoke up. "We're at Camp Half-Blood."

" _Camp Half-Blood_? But Percy…"

"I still have no idea how, but they managed to find me," Percy interceded.

Annabeth appeared to be choking for some reason; she looked away.

"Annabeth, do you know where Jason is?" Piper asked desperately.

"Um… yes. He's with me. So is Clarisse. They're just getting food, I think. But, Percy, where _were_ you?"

Five other people turned to pointedly stare at him.

"I think we need to have this conversation somewhere that _isn't_ via IM," Percy muttered.

"Perseus Jackson-"

"What happened to Ryan?" Percy said quickly.

For the first time, something approaching a smile touched Annabeth's face. "I… took care of him. I can promise he won't… _annoy_ you any more."

Percy blinked. "Okay. Let's save that story for later. My father?"

"It wasn't his fault."

Percy looked relieved.

"Where exactly in London are you? Nico can shadow-travel across there and take you back here-" Leo began excitedly.

"Well, _thanks,_ Valdez. I am _not_ a taxi. That's a little harder than it sounds." Nico snapped, lips planted firmly in a scowl.

"No, Nico, please do it," Annabeth said, her words not moving in sync with her lips. "Things are happening, and… I don't think we should stay here. It isn't our territory. We're angering something by just being here. And, Percy – I need to talk to you-"

" _Fine,"_ Nico said, "I'll do it. But after this, you owe me."

The shaky connection dissolved, and they were left standing there, in the suddenly bereft cabin.

 **THANK YOU TO ALL THE PEOPLE WHO REVIEWED AND TOLD ME TO UPDATE THIS STORY:**

 **fall-out-potter**

 **Aviendhaphiragon**

 **Guest**

 **bookworm0127z**

 **lexi123456**

 **sarahj02**

 **1111112233455667**

 **Linna R**

 **Guest**

 **Sally Stevens**

 **alohasunset**

 **And finally awesomeninja09 because although you didn't specifically ask for an update, I just loved your review. Thank you so much!**

 **And, um, sorry in advance because I probably forgot someone :/**

 **Please review!**

 **~thaliatheawesome**


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